


in connection with

by gomushroom



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, M/M, Minor Injuries, Minor Violence, Partnership, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:08:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21716629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gomushroom/pseuds/gomushroom
Summary: Senior Detective Ohno Satoshi is assigned to a new partner, Tech Detective Sakurai Sho, who has just transferred in from Kanazawa and who happened to be Ohno’s ‘favorite’kouhaiby a year back in their Police Academy days.
Relationships: Ohno Satoshi/Sakurai Sho
Comments: 48
Kudos: 50





	1. Day 1

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, happy belated birthday Sato-C! 💕
> 
> This started as a Yama detective AU as one of my Nano projects this year, which naturally evolved into an Arashi Police AU. However, the crime aspects are _not_ the focus of this silly story; this will have no coherent police procedural stuff or whodunit plot those crime stories usually have. Expect vague case notes, half-ass resolutions, Ohno kicking villains’ asses just for the sake of kicking ass, and Sho being an adorable tech-nerd. All references from several ridiculous, funny, and over the top police/detective j-dramas will be on its respective chapter notes.
> 
> All specific warning tags will be on every posted chapter notes but since this is a murder police story, rating is R for mild violence. My initial idea was to write a Yama ~s e x y~ story but, yeah, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. :D
> 
> Update will be random but I’m aiming for steady monthly chapter—let’s see how that plan goes.

Ohno gives the Commissioner office door a series of knocks.

He usually hates morning summons because they always mean bad news in all variety—the reprimands, mostly for his behavior on the field, even if he could only blame the rookie officers for botching the evidences; the face-to-face briefing involving too many head officer officers, which most of the time required him to drop a case or look the other way when something bigger is involved; or the top secret assignment that ended up not so top secret because he’d find most of the head divisions were there and sometimes Ohno wished they could just arrange a full briefing before lunch time.

Ohno knows what this morning summon is all about. It doesn’t make him more enthusiastic than usual though. It has set back his morning thinking time by half an hour, and he doesn’t appreciate a change of routine in any way.

At the soft answer from inside, Ohno opens the door and steps in. Ignoring the other presence in the room now, he stands at attention in the middle of the room and gives a short salute to the Commissioner before shifting to at ease. “You wanted to see me, Sir?”

“Good morning, Ohno,” Commissioner Higashiyama nods at him. “At least it’s good news this morning.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The Commissioner nods at the other presence in the room and Ohno shifts his stance.

“I summoned you here to formally introduce you to your new partner. This is Sakurai Sho, Second Rank Tech Detective. He recently relocated here after few years serving in the Kanazawa Prefecture Office. I believe you are acquainted with him already?”

Ohno finally turns and meet the eyes of his new partner. Openly, he gives the man a once over.

Sakurai Sho.

Sakurai Sho-kun, who was his _kouhai_ by a year back in their Academy years.

Sho-kun, Ohno corrects himself, who is currently looking completely different from what Ohno remembers him. Gone is the surly look Sho used to wear—there were always too many tasks and case studies; there was always too much pressure from their mentors, from peers, and most of all from themselves. Gone is the stubborn expression, the air of determination Ohno often considered as excessive—considering they were just mere trainee back then.

Sho-kun now looks stunning.

Ohno finds himself frowning as he stares at Sho, his beautiful eyes are even more beautiful than Ohno remembers. Those lips look absolutely sinful now. Sho also looks fit in his perfectly fitted black suit, the formal tie—even the tie is perfectly tied; he has to resist the temptation to reach for his own tie, and his gleaming dress shoes—which almost made Ohno lost it; how can the man work in the field with such fancy shoes, Ohno has questions already.

And working together a partner? Ohno has been completely comfortable working solo, with his own pace, and he is practically surrounded with competent rookie young detectives who are always eager—or in some cases can’t refuse him—to be given tasks regarding any active investigation. He is one of the aces here in the Division after all.

But an assignment is an assignment. Ohno only nods, and answers the Commissioner earlier question. “Yes, I am Sir.”

Ohno senses the Commissioner was about to wrap the meeting when he catches a movement from his side. He can’t help to let out a short chuckle when he finds Sho bowing deeply in introduction—so polite and formal it’s bordering cute; somehow Ohno feels a surge of warmth and an explicable urge to ruffle the formality off the man.

The Commissioner is also amused, clearing his throat to conceal, what Ohno knows, one of his real smiles. “The head office had been very adamant in establishing a solid Tech subsection here in the Criminal Homicide Division. Ohno, you no longer need to collaborate with the third floor.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Your team can now both process and authorize e-evidence. Sakurai is officially certified to do so. I suppose this will cut a lot of red tape delay I kept on hearing from you, Ohno.”

It’s hard for Ohno to not grin—finally the time has come. The third floor has been his nemesis all along, all the annoying geeks who hated Ohno’s straightforward demand and impatience requests, had constantly given him a headache every time he needed them to process electronic evidence. 

Now he only needs to be straightforwardly demanding and impatient toward Sho; this partnership can really work in his favor, he thinks.

“Yes, Sir.”

The Commissioner shifts his gaze to Sho. “Sakurai, you are aware along with this partnership, you will be in obligatory probation for the next three months, correct?

“I am, Sir.”

Ohno feels the corner of his eye twitches at the sound of Sho’s voice. Gone is the cute high-pitched Sho that once sounded both adorable and annoying to Ohno. The man next to him, Ohno notes, has deep and sweet-toned voice—now he has even more questions.

“You report to Ohno first for your performance review, but I am also granting you professional freedom to explore more about how this Tech thing will work on the division. I trust you to follow through your proposal and also report to me from time to time.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Very well.” He glances to his screen before nodding to both of them. “Head straight to West Setagaya. There’s been a suspicious death case this morning. All details should be on your communicators and has been sent to your desks.”

His reply is, beyond Ohno’s expectation, in synch with Sho. “Yes, Sir,” they both say.

The Commissioner nods at them one last time. “You’re both dismissed.”

*

On his way to the elevator bank. Ohno has just realized that Sho is walking one step behind him, most likely because he doesn’t know where they are going and is only following him because he must expect Ohno to show his way around here on his first day.

Fine.

He has no problem in showing Sho how things are done here. And they have a hot case, which required them to be on the field as soon as possible. He is tempted in just dragging Sho out of here and getting to work immediately, but now that he has Sho in his disposal, Ohno supposes he could arrange something more comfortable for him. Well, for Sho, too, but the man doesn’t have to know that.

Ohno presses the button—knowing that the elevator usually takes its time, especially when he is in a rush like this, and finally turns to see Sho waiting just at the end of the bank, clutching his backpack with an easy smile.

That’s not the expression Ohno was hoping to find.

That’s not the expression Ohno’s partner should wear; they both need to sport the utmost serious expression. Ohno has a long running reputation, an infamous one at that, and just because now he’s working with a partner—already a small dent to his impervious stubbornness image as one of the best detectives in Homicide—doesn’t mean he is willing to lose all the benefit from all the hard work he’s done these years to earn it. Sure, the office whispers have taken his crude way of talking and his no-nonsense attitude to another exaggerated level, but Ohno enjoys the hard-earned respect from his superior for all his hard work and the fear his fellow detectives and officers has for him.

Ohno was frowning as he tries to tell Sho just that when the elevator arrives with a soft ding.

“After you, Satoshi-kun.”

Ohno freezes on his stance.

The polite voice, the sound of his name rolling out of Sho’s mouth, spoken so seamlessly, like years ago back at the Academy when they were the closest thing Ohno had ever considered as friends with benefits.

But the glorious time of their youth has passed, and here they are now in the Tokyo Metropolitan Headquarter building, waiting for the elevator that will take them to their floor, as partners; And Ohno doesn't want nostalgia right now; he needs to work, he needs to solve cases, and if Sho is to be his partner—a lower rank partner at that, Ohno needs to set the rules of their partnership.

“Excuse me?” His voice comes out distant and cold, and he makes sure he’s glaring seriously at Sho.

Sho blinks in confusion, and Ohno sees he’s trying to comprehend the tone of Ohno’s warning and digest the signs Ohno has been giving him—a good trait in detective work, quick thinking, Ohno notes; not bad for a lower rank partner.

“I mean—“ There’s an uncertainty in Sho’s voice but he pulls through with his deduction and manages to offer: “Ohno-san?”

Ohno gives a stiff nod before walking into the waiting elevator first. After Sho followed and stood next to him, he presses the button for the fifth floor knowing that Sho’s watching his movement and most probably already making mental notes—another good trait, observant to details, Ohno notes again; better than he expected for a lower rank partner.

This is going to be a long day, Ohno sighs as he watches the floor number blinks. 

Their office is on the west corner of the fifth floor—Ohno immediately goes into his serious mode and without waiting for Sho, he strides across the lobby to get to his corner cubicle, or should he say their corner cubicle. He ignores the questioning look of the people in the open office area—already used to their stares and whispers, and sighs when he reaches his space, or should he say their space now, finding the case brief already waiting for him on the desk.

His, or should he say their now, corner layout is simple, and the partition does nothing to provide them with peace and quiet, but it at least gives a decent sense of privacy from prying eyes of his colleagues.

He turns to find Sho’s standing in the middle of their space and waiting for Ohno’s instruction.

“I’m using this side,” Ohno says, pointing at the messy desk with an old computer and a comfy chair. Two other desks are on the other side of the cubicle—and Ohno has never used them except when he’s running out of space with his case board. “You can have them. Requisition Division can grant you nicer chair if you’re nice to them.”

Sho only nods and walks toward one of the desks. 

“You’ll also need to set up some fancy computer here, right?”

“Yes,” Sho says with a short nod, his gaze on the table—and Ohno can see that he’s probably already making plans for this equipment.

Ohno was about to let this one go before he remembers that they need to settle this now before anything else. He clears his throat and asks again. “Excuse me?” 

With an obvious surprise, Sho quickly turns and meets Ohno’s eyes. But this time he’s not entirely confused—another good trait in detective work, fast learning, Ohno notes pleasedly; definitely not bad for a lower rank partner. 

Sho finally says: “Yes, Sir.”

Ohno doesn’t really like the hint of amused smile he can catch over Sho’s expression but he knows he has to let it go for now. “That’s better. I’m looking forward to working with you, Sho-kun.”

“Likewise, Sir.”

Letting Sho to at least settle a bit—his backpack seems to be filled with things that Ohno doesn’t want to know right now—Ohno takes a few moments to study the salient of the case files before he remembers he planned to make arrangements now that he has Sho working with him. “You can drive, right?”

“Of course,” Sho answers quickly before he turns to Ohno with a confused frown again. “You mean cars, Sir??”

“Of course,” Ohno says with an eye roll, but he’s already walking away from their cubicle and sets off in realizing his plan. “Be ready to go in 5 minutes.

He stands at the edge of the open office, his eyes scanning for the first floor Requisition Division person he can identify. Most of the people in the morning shift have gone to the field; only several desk officers are currently in the open office space. He finally finds an officer wearing orange armband over their uniform sleeves—the color of the Requisition Division—and just shout from where he stands. “Kiriyama!”

The officer startles at Ohno’s shout, but instead of coming over to where Ohno stood, the man is confusedly looking around as if searching for someone else.

Ohno is not having any of it. “Kiriyama, I’m talking to you.”

“But, I’m— Sir, I’m not—,” this Kiriyama tries to explain, his palms up on his chest as if in surrender, even as he approaches Ohno cautiously. But one look at Ohno’s cold stare and demanding authority has the man quickly rectified his reply. “Yes. Yes, Sir!”

Requisition department people always make this kind of fuss everytime Ohno has something he needs; he’s itching to go on the field already today so he wastes no time to make his request. “We need a car, a decent one. My partner will be driving.”

“Sir!”

At least the man was quick in saluting Ohno before running back to the division cubicle. Ohno can see the man is causing a bit of commotion around the division corner and be satisfied with the chaos he created as he sees this Kiriyama and several of his fellow officers scrambling to comply to Ohno’s order. 

He turns and walks back to their cubicle, and finds Sho already standing in attention with his backpack. He heads to his desk to get his coat and the case file before turning to Sho again. “Grab what you need, we’re heading out as soon as they give us a car.”

He was about to comment on Sho’s small smile, wonderment or maybe amusement Ohno can’t tell immediately when this Kiriyama appears at their cubicle with a car key and a stack of forms. “Here you go, Sir. You will need to complete all the forms first though. Kiriyama-san will be here shorty, and since I can’t personally authorized—“

“He’ll do it later,” Ohno says, gesturing this Kiriyama to hand both the key and document to Sho. “We need to be in the field now.”

“Yes, Sir!” This Kiriyama answers in reflex, with a salute to Ohno. He steps forward, still cautiously, to Sho with a much more relaxed expression. “Sir, please finish those documents by the end of the day. And please, please, don’t crash the car again.”

“I said he’d be driving. The car will be fine,” Ohno cuts him with an annoyed gruff as he does a swift turn to put on his coat with a flourish. He then turns to this Kiriyama who appears curious about Sho and is now standing next to him. “Which lot?”

The man snaps to attention and salutes Ohno again. “Basement 3, lot 24, Sir.”

“Thanks,” Ohno says as he turns to leave their cubicle. “You heard him, Sho-kun. Let’s go.”

There’s a sound of rush and commotion behind him, but Ohno pays no heed and strides back to the elevator bank. He waits impatiently for one, and when it dings and opens he quickly steps in. When he turns to press the basement button, he sees Sho is running toward the elevator—he sighs, there goes the hope of having a moment for himself before they need to go on the field. He reluctantly presses the hold button and waits for Sho to enter the elevator with him. 

When the door closes Sho is out of breath next to him, hugging his large backpack with his hand holding a stack of messy documents. 

Ohno sighs, taking the messy documents and making sure nothing is going to fall out any time soon, before slotting it between Sho’s chest and his backpack, less chance for them having to stop just because Sho’s document are scattered away. He doesn’t want to waste time now, his thought already trying to line up the briefing information for later in the crime scene. 

“Ah, thank you, Sir.”

“I told you to grab what you need. Not bringing everything with you.”

“This is what I need. All of them,” Sho says rather stubbornly. He’s leaning on the far end elevator wall, still out of breath. “Sir.”

The elevator dings again, and they arrive on Basement 3. Ohno decides that it’s too annoying and early for them to argue about what Sho’s bringing to the crime scene. It is because of Sho now they can get a car—those Requisition people are so adamant to always reject Ohno’s request about driving a car. They can resolve that later. Now they need to head to the crime scene. “Fine.”

*

Ohno has expected more annoying crowd in front of the house, but they arrive at a minimum barricade and just a few street officers keeping guard at the entrance. He goes straight to meet the first on-scene responder officers, getting the salient report he needs before ordering Sho to take his statement formally.

He enters the living room and sees that while the crime scene people are scattered around the room with their equipment, a man with fluffy jacket and bright orange sneakers is still hunched down examining the body.

Ohno goes to the kitchen first, taking in the tidy counter and one grocery bag still lying around neglected. He looks around and notes there’s no clear sign of violent struggle from where he’s standing—simple living room in a simple house, old furniture kept tidy and clean, no personal pictures on the wall, and underneath the smell crime scene chemical stuff there’s an underlying of rose scent.

Interesting.

He pads back to the living room, over the body, and crouches next to the man. He squints at the sight of blood smears near the body’s hand. “Is that her dying message or something? That’s some ugly handwriting.”

“Don’t say rude things in front of them,” Aiba elbows him without turning, still examining the kill slashes on her neck—now that’s definitely a clear sign of violence, Ohno notes. 

He lets Aiba has his space and asks a crime scene person for a photo of the blood smear. He receives an instant photo and holds up the photo carefully. He feels Sho approaching him quietly, and asks. “Did it really say: ‘don’t be sad I’ll be here’”?

“What is that, Sir?” Sho now crouches next to him, still carrying his backpack; really, Ohno will soon have enough with that backpack. “I guess it did say that, but I’m not really sure, is it ‘here’ or ‘there’.”

Ohno only nods. They will get that cleared up once he received lab results, but now since Aiba is here they might as well hear his prelim opinion. “Is it that bad, Aiba-chan?”

“It’s always bad,” Aiba says with a shrug; switching back to seriousness as he looks down to the body between them. “This is definitely not a self-termination. My initial reading shows that it might poison or perhaps internal injury, the neck wounds most likely to be postmortem, but I need to take her in to be sure.”

Ohno doesn’t reply, already calculating that he will need to return to the morgue, but between interview and some fieldwork he’d be able to do that tomorrow. 

Ohno sighs and closes his eyes.

The silence between them lingers for another minute with the muted sound of the crime scene people working on the other sides of the house them. Ohno feels Aiba’s patience on his left while Sho’s curiosity is being distracting on his right. 

“Tell you what, Oh-chan,” Aiba finally breaks their silence. 

Ohno ignores the sound of Sho’s loud gasp next to him—his surprise of hearing Aiba informally addressing him is understandable—and opens his eyes to turn to Aiba.

“Give me 12 hours max, and I’ll have the report hand-delivered to you.” Aiba sighs as he fixes the cloth to cover the cold body. “She’s been here for a while and I don’t fully trust my prelim reading. Too many inconsistencies here, I need to take everything to the lab. I’ll get Nino push on the fiber and tox screen too.”

That’s a good enough offer, Ohno has to agree. While it is not a hot case, his scene walkthrough tells him almost nothing. Sho has offered to do the basic e-digging but Ohno has this feeling that said there’s more than what’s it seems in glance. “I’ll drop by tomorrow after lunch then. I want to hear Nino’s take on this.”

“I’ll be waiting then,” Aiba says as he finally turns to Ohno and catches the sight of Sho next to him. “Ah, hello, I don’t think I’ve met you before. Are you with Oh-chan?”

“I— I am,” Sho answer, and then he awkwardly holds out his hand in front of Ohno to shake Aiba’s in introduction. “Sakurai Sho. Tech Detective.” 

“Nice to meet you, Sho-chan,” Aiba says with a friendly smile, his hand accepting Sho’s offer easily. “I’m Aiba from the morgue office.”  
.  
“Yes, the famous Death Doctor,” Sho says with a polite nod and a hint of a smile. “I heard a lot about you.”

Aiba laughs. “I hope it’s all the good things.”

Ohno has held his eye roll long enough, and really there’s no need to prolong introduction here, in front of the dead body. He slaps Aiba and Sho’s joined gloves hand. “Break it up, will you. Some of us are trying to work here.”

Sho quickly pulls his hand, murmuring, “Sorry, Sir” while Aiba only laughs again. 

They part with Aiba at the house entrance, and Ohno decides he needs to make round in the neighborhood, trusting Sho to follow him along. 

It’s a quiet neighborhood, Ohno notes, and a rather upscale residential area. There’s a park just behind the house; Ohno points out the park to ask for Sho to wait for him there while he goes checking the entry points and the possibility of breaking in from the small alley just up the house. He walks back and forth the small alley, finding several entry points from here, whoever has knowledge of the neighborhood can easily go inside the house through here.

He returns a few minutes later to find Sho sitting on a bench with his tablet on his hand and two steaming coffee to go cups next to him.

It’s cold outside—Ohno doesn’t want to know how Sho can procure coffee—and he is not going to refuse hot coffee offer. 

Standing next to the bench, Ohno sips his coffee—he can really get used to having Sho as partner if this is what he’s getting—and stares at the window of the house. Being here in the park here gives him a direct view to her house, and that is also something to take into account. 

“You better be busy checking those CCTV footages.”

Sho startles from his focus, and looks up to nod at Ohno. “I am, Sir. I have also broadened the request to cover both stations. I’m having them sent to our office by late afternoon.”

Ohno nods at the progress report. That should cut all the work he usually had to do. There’s nothing much to do here on crime scene, and Ohno dreads the obligatory crime scene meeting he has to attend in the next hour.

“Have you worked violent murder cases before?” Ohno asks, finding himself curious because Sho has flinched noticeably when they were crouching next to the dead body and been looking considerably paler since then—Ohno is considering relieving Sho from tomorrow’s meeting with Aiba at the morgue. That won’t be a walk in the park. 

Sho turns to meet Ohno’s eyes, something unreadable in his expression. “Officially yes. But I never had the chance to be in the field. My expertise is—“

“Tech crime. I know. I read your file,” Ohno cuts him, before Sho’s explanation becomes longer and heated. 

Sho shrugs. “Then you probably already figure out that I didn’t have much hands-on experience in the field.”

Ohno has no problem in letting Sho work in the field, because that comes with his job now. But there’s also imminent risk that comes with being in the field. “But are you still training regularly?”

“Of course, Sir. It’s obligatory.”

Ohno has to hold his chuckles down. He remembers that Sho was the kind who did everything obligatory, adhering to the rules to the point of unbendable—whether it was just some stupid regulation of curfew back in the Academy, or what Ohno suspected, the habit is more ingrained now and showed in his work pace. Still, Ohno has to ask: “So you won’t have problems with running to save your life while being chased by a violent group of yakuza mob?”

Sho straightens in his seat, looking worried. “Are you suspecting this as a yakuza job?”

“I didn’t say that,” Ohno says with a wave of his hand. 

They get into silence again—and Ohno is beginning to enjoy how he can see Sho’s wrecking his brain to get to the same conclusion. 

It takes a while but Sho gets there. “So that’s why you’re wearing sneakers.”

“Huh?”

“I was wondering why since morning, but you are moving all the time, and of course it’s more comfortable,” Sho says, before he adds. “Sir.”

Ohno shrugs at that. “I’m not going to chase some suspects down the alley wearing dress shoes.” He makes sure Sho catches his glance to Sho’s dress shoes “Do you need me to order you to wear more comfortable shoes starting tomorrow?”

Sho lets out a small smile. “No, Sir. I’ll get to it.”

“Now pack up. We’re heading back.”

*

Ohno carelessly throws his coat to the back of his chair before turning to Sho. The man looks relieved to finally be able to put down his backpack—that should teach him a lesson, Ohno is sure. “I’ll do the murder board later when I get back from Crime Scene meeting. You know how to do reports and all the online filing system, right?”

“I do, Sir.”

Ohno nods as he taps pocket to make sure he has his phone with him. A glance at the clock on screen tells him that he better get going now if he doesn’t want to be late. “I’ll get one of the Requisition people to help you set up. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

He doesn’t wait for Sho’s answer and leaves their cubicle to walk to the Requisition corner. 

The young man behind the counter is not Kiriyama, or the other Kiriyama from this morning. Ohno frowns as he tries to remember the other’s name but the young man has already standing in attention and giving him a salute. 

“I’m Nakama, Sir. How can I help you, Sir!”

The introduction saves the headache, Ohno sighs. At least this one knows him and looks eager to help. “Show my partner how things are done here. He’s in our cubicle. Provide everything he needs. And tell Kiriyama to report to me by the end of the day.” 

Ohno is already a few paces away from the Requisition cubicle when he hears the enthusiastic “Yes, Sir,” and tells him to be satisfied with it. Sho can take care of himself for now, and Ohno has a boring meeting to attend to.

Almost two hours later, Ohno is in his most terrible mood; those superior people always think they know better, well guess what they didn’t. He was ready to snap at the first person—which most likely be Sho—who dares to ask how the meeting goes, when he turns to their cubicle.

The sight he saw made him stop short.

Sho and that Nakama from Requisition are sitting together and slurping ramen at the spare table. Sho has a paper he’s trying to read on his left hand while that Nakama is scrolling through something. There’s a new computer setup on what Ohno figures as Sho’s desk now and Ohno’s murder board is already set on the far end even if there’s only a few post-it on it now. 

“What the—”

Sho looks up at the soft curse, and sets his spoon down to stand in attention, which prompted Nakama to jump from his seat and do the same.

“Sir, I’ve finished all the reports and they all are ready for your review,” Sho says before turning to Nakama to signal him to fetch something. When Nakama has hurried out their cubicle, Sho’s tone is softer. He actually let out a small smile at Ohno. “It’s past dinner time and I decided to order all of us dinner. I asked Nakama which place does delivery at this hour and I ordered soba for all of us.”

The mention of food distracts Ohno for a few moments, giving opportunity for Sho to lead him to his desk chair. Nakama comes back with a tray of what looks to be a delicious soba set. Ohno finds himself sitting by his desk, and Sho hovering close to him to arrange a pair of chopstick and shibori for him.

“You like cold soba, right? I hope I remember correctly. Sir,” Sho says, taking a step away from Ohno’s desk and looking satisfied with how Ohno’s still taken aback.

“I do. Thanks.” Ohno sighs and rolls his eyes—just why did Sho still remember that. The comforting scent of soba is definitely getting to him—lunch seems so far away now, whatever he was having then. With more work to be done—and he hates to admit that he’s thankful Sho didn’t ask anything about the annoying meeting—Ohno accepts the food silently by picking up the chopstick. 

Sho returns to his seat to finish his food, leaving Ohno to enjoy his dinner. And Nakama excuses himself after giving Ohno a report, bowing his thanks to Sho and saluting Ohno properly.

In the quiet office, Ohno finds the presence of Sho working quietly on his desk and occasionally helping Ohno with printed document soothing. It’s been a long day for both of them and Ohno definitely does not need any unnecessary fuss. Ohno manages to set up half the board before he notices that it’s already a bit past 9 PM. 

Ohno sends Sho’s home after ignoring his protests, after telling Sho that he will need to be back to the office earlier than Ohno the next day, and after one vicious glare that was so weak Ohno cannot even convinced himself. 

And Sho finally relents and leaves Ohno to work into the night. 

Grunting over the lack of coffee—maybe he should have made Sho buy some first before Ohno sent him home, but it can’t be helped—Ohno pushes through setting up the rest of his murder board. He lines up and scribbles the interview plans and visits they have to make tomorrow before deciding to call it a night.

When he steps out the cubicle, the light on the entire floor is off save for the Requisition Division. Passing by their cubicle to get to the elevator, Ohno sees another Kiriyama is fast asleep on his desk. Good, there’s a reason to yell at them all tomorrow. 

Ohno welcomes the night air as he steps out from the building, quite pleased with how everything went down today, and begins his walk home.

*


	2. Day 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Yama. More world building; this fic started as Ohno's so pov will remain his. More on the case activities; nothing much on crime solving but some progress. More about adjusting to partnership. 
> 
> Bonus: a bit heavy on the cute just because Yama and kids combination is one of my favorites thing in the world.

Ohno stops short at their cubicle, and lets out a loud curse.

This morning has been running pretty smooth, and Ohno is eager to get back to his murder board, already perfecting his interview’s questions in his mind. Even the apparent nervousness of the other Kiriyama who bumped into him in the elevator didn’t bother him, being so focused on his plan for the day.

But now in front of him, his murder board he painstakingly worked on last night is ruined. 

He takes a step closer and sees bright notes over his notes, pictures over the autopsy papers he put up last night. There are some new charts—some diagrams he could understand but charts, pie charts at that, what good of them? There’s overlapping neat—that’s typed out words—over his messy handwriting, and everything is not the same.

Taking a deep breath, Ohno lets out a loud growl before a shout. “Sho-kun!”

That must have startled the whole floor because Ohno feels the silence drops and that everyone must have startled by his outburst. Not that he cares, he just wants his murder board, that’s not too much to ask. 

“Sho-kun,” Ohno yells again, knowing that Sho must be somewhere around—this is all he’s doing, Ohno is dead certain. No one, no one here at the floor or at the entire headquarters for sure, will dare to touch his murder board. Kiriyama and the others would not even dare to breathe into the direction of his cubicle. 

“Sho-kun, show your—“ fine ass right now, Ohno wants to say but with everyone in the open office hearing he doesn’t need them to know about Sho’s fine ass. He only needs to chortle Sho right now. “—your face right now!”

Just as if he timed it, Sho steps into the cubicle carrying a stack of file and greets Ohno with a small smile. “Ohno-san! Good morning, Sir! I’ve rounded up the murder board.”

The look on Sho’s face, so fresh in the morning, with his small smile is the sight that warms Ohno, almost making him smiling in return, almost; he needs to remind himself that he is seething, his voice dangerously cold when he says, “You did what?”

Sho hasn’t caught his anger yet apparently, only swiftly walking toward the shared desk in the middle of their space, dumping the files he carried and booting up the new laptop he acquired yesterday. “I input all our notes this morning, and run them through this software, and—“

Ohno has to force himself to not growl. “Run through what?”

“This software I’ve been using. It sets everything in order. I lined up our interviews yesterday and—”

Ohno growls this time.

And Sho, startled out of his concentration, stops and turns to Ohno. “Sir?”

“What time did you get here?”

Sho blinks at the unexpected question, shifting embarrassed in his seat. “A bit after 6 actually. I kept thinking about the case last night, so I figured—”

“You figured you can just be in early and destroy all my hard work last night?”

“Sir?” The surprise and confusion in Sho’s face is genuine, Ohno gives him prop that, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to easily let Sho go with all the unnecessary meddling he’s done.

“Sit down, and hands off of your fancy computers.”

Sho takes a seat at one of the chair, slowly and carefully folding his hands on his lap, still looking like he’s utterly confused but knowing better than to go against Ohno’s instruction—at least he’s not entirely a fool. Ohno wants to yell at him but the confused look in Sho’s face is also telling him that Sho hasn’t understood the situation. 

It’s just too early in the morning, Ohno sighs tiredly. There goes his plan to go straight back to his case file and work this one as fast as he can. He exhales loudly, and tells himself to be patient. “What did you do to _my_ murder board? What is this? Where the hell are my notes?”

Sho blinks. “I— I just rounded things up for us. Your notes are still up there,” he says before quickly adding, “Sir.”

They’re not going to get anywhere if they keep on being like this, he asked questions Sho doesn’t understand and Sho giving answer he can’t understand. 

Ohno sighs again and turns to go to his desk. He grumpily takes off his coat and flings it carelessly toward his chair, satisfied that it ends up draping on his chair perfectly. He turns again to see that Sho hasn’t moved, still sitting rigidly in attention, waiting for him. They better get this cleared up soon if they plan to work within the next hour, Ohno tells himself; he takes a seat on the chair near the murder board and tells himself to patient, again.

“Now. Let me rephrase this in simpler questions,” Ohno said, a bit proud of how his voice now sounds composed. “Did you delete my notes?”

“I did not,” Sho answers quickly. “All I did was—“

Ohno silences Sho with one glare. “Yes or No. That’s all I need.”

“Yes, Sir. I mean, no, Sir, I didn’t delete anything.“

“Okay,” Ohno says, with one hand up to prevent Sho to launch into another stream of explanation. “If you didn’t delete them, where are they right now?”

Sho blinks confusedly at the question, looking Ohno in a slight disbelief, which made Ohno’s frown in return. This is such a headache, Ohno rolls his eyes, and they’re not getting anywhere. 

Sho fortunately takes the initiative this time. “May I show you something? I do need to touch my computers. Sir.”

Since Sho asked politely, Ohno only huffs. “You have one minute.”

“It won’t take that long,” Sho says, already sliding his chair so he can shift his keyboard, and after a few clicks, the overhead projector—when did they have that in their cubicle, Ohno doesn’t even remember—dims and few of the projections flicker off and disappear.

Leaving the murder board exactly the same as Ohno left it last night.

“Huh?”

There’s no more of the charts, which were, Ohno belatedly realizes, projected over the autopsy papers. The testimony timeline he drew last night is still highlighting the whole board, but now there are fewer things on the board. So, Ohno swallows his pride and says. “So you didn’t delete my notes.”

“I didn’t. I didn’t even touch your board,” Sho says. “May I also explain more? Sir.”

“Not now,” Ohno says, his tone curt. He really needs to talk to Sho later about using _that_ tone when he addresses Ohno with ‘Sir’. But there’s a murder board to be reviewed so he swallows a little bit of his pride—grumpily of course—and admit his rushed conclusion—silently of course. “I need 15 minutes. Go have coffee or something somewhere else. I’ll hear about your findings and the new fancy stuff you just put it here later.”

When Sho quietly complies, Ohno lets out a loud exhale.

He had handled this completely wrong—but in his defense it was partially Sho’s fault for doing this out of the blue. He should have been more accommodating to Sho’s being in a new work environment—but in his defense, this has only been day two. He should do many things to help Sho acquaint himself with how things are done here in HQ, like giving Sho a tour of the floors or letting him know that Kiriyama and his friends are mostly available to do errands for them—but in his defense, he knows Sho’s super smart and he’d find his way around in no time; after all, he managed to befriend the better one from the Kiriyama and his friends bunch and dealt with dinner and report work last night.

He scratches his forehead with his fingers to shake off unnecessary thoughts; he has a case to solve; he and Sho have a case to solve. 

And he has to admit, to himself only of course, that the case murder board looks sparse now. A closer look tells him that Sho indeed did not delete anything. Everything he put up yesterday was still there, his messy scrawls and connecting lines stayed undisturbed. He sighs and proceeds to reread his notes.

The scent of coffee pulls him back to their cubicle. He turns and finds a steaming mug on the table and Sho standing nearby it holding his own. 

“I apologize for yelling at you,” Ohno mumbles, considering that should be more than enough. 

As he picks up the offered mug, he chances a glance at Sho. He regrets his decision immediately when he catches the fleeting small smirk on Sho’s face as Sho leans forward a bit and asks: “Pardon, Sir?”

Ohno tsks.

Sakurai Sho.

Sakurai Sho-kun, his kouhai by a year back in their Academy years, who once was too serious and stubborn to the point of annoying, who once smiles so cutely at young Ohno when he’s happy, who was probably the only one in the Academy who could sneak a tease or two to young Ohno and live to tell the tale, who could be a smartypants little shit right back at young Ohno and come out unscathed. 

Ohno gives the man his most vicious glares: Sho might look like he matured beautifully under his stunning looks but he apparently still can be a competitive know-it-all all the same. 

Ohno is going to put him in his place. 

The hard way. The hardest way.

But not now. Not now when they need to work this case and get going. Ohno settles in giving the nearby chair a light kick and says, grumpily: “Nothing.”

At least Sho doesn’t say anything else, only waiting for Ohno settling in the chair he just kicked and for further instruction.

“Let’s see what you got.”

Sho seems relieved to be able to work on his computers again. For a long moment there’s only sounds of keyboard clicking before Sho begins to explain. 

“The interviews from yesterday is transcribed and cross referenced with crime scenes photos.”

A long list of keywords and connecting lines appear at the right side of the murder board. 

“There are few of recurring keywords from the neighbor’s testimonies,” Sho continues, his eyes focused on his computer screen and his fingers typing steadily—it’s rather impressive, Ohno must admit.

“I also extracted most of the Vic’s media social presence and added the data into the board.” Few pages slide in succession to the left side of the board along with more connecting lines.

Sho has worked everything into a neat presentation, and Ohno is beginning to see that Sho’s version is more comprehensive and giving a clearer visual of how this case are structured. 

“The testimonies are machine transcription, so it’s not 100% accurate, but at this stage it should be able to give a gist of everything and it’d be easier to cross check later.”

The charts and diagrams appear, and as if anticipating Ohno, Sho continues again with a quick explanation. “These are probability schemes. I know we don’t rely on crime probability as much as we should, but I believe it would be helpful to link this to the database, eliminating and connecting like crimes, and anticipating repeated offenders.”

Ohno stays silent even if he knows that Sho’s done with his explanation. 

He doesn’t like this digital thing. Nothing beats handwriting and circling around the board. But it does bring a fresh take into fleshing the structure out of the case.

He stands to walk toward the murder board, trying to read the keywords—interesting, the most repeated words relate to a conclusion that the Vic does have a romantic partner with whom she most probably share a daily correspondence. He sees Sho has also put up several of the Vic social media photos, showing her tendency to post cryptic updates about how she is now in a relationship with a steady partner.

“This is solid work.”

Ohno can hear the sharp intake of breath behind him. He can almost tell Sho’s most probably blushing from an unexpected compliment: well, all credit where credit's due, Ohno shrugs. This _is_ a solid work.

“Although, you couldn’t possibly do this alone in a very short time,” Ohno says as he turns just in time to see Sho smiles rather sheepishly. 

“The officers from Requisition Division have been a great help.”

For the first time that morning, Ohno lets out a snort that is actually a small laugh he managed to cover before Sho catches it. “Are you distracting those Kiriyamas from their tasks?”

“No, Sir. Nakama and several others have been willing to help. And Kiriyama said we could request additional manpower. I’ve drafted the official requisition letter last night and reviewed it with them this morning,” Sho says before adding: “They also said that they are familiar with the tasks because…because of you.”

“They’re always available and all you need to do is to shout at them. That usually did the trick.” Ohno says as he rolls his eyes. He just knows that Sho is going to charm them all, buying them dinner and being nice to them, and soon enough they all are going to be nice to Sho. That doesn’t sound good; Ohno needs to always keep them on their toes, being a respected Senior Detective that he is. “Just don’t be too nice to them.”

“Yes, Sir,” Sho says with a chuckle, and Ohno ignores the tingling warmth on his chest at the sound and returns his focus to the board.

*

With the new murder board, they manage to narrow down the list of the interviews. Sho cross references everything probability—it does come in handy especially since the Vic seems to have a large network of friends—and Ohno now has sharper case details—he usually spent a few days to get to this point, while Sho only needed one morning—and more coherent interview questions. Sho even assures him that they can access the content of the board remotely through one of his fancy devices he carries with him everywhere or even over their car navigation system.

Ohno doesn’t believe it one bit, but he lets Sho have his fun, for now.

Few hours later they’re heading to the kindergarten where the Vic worked as a homeroom teacher. Sho manages to get the car from yesterday listed as their official vehicles, and it is hard for Ohno to stay annoyed especially when there’s no hustle and they can go straight away. 

The map Sho installed in the dashboard beeps its notification, and at the next intersection, Sho makes a right turn. “It’s already lunch time, Ohno-san.”

Ohno only hums. “Which is the perfect time to stop by and get everyone in the same room.”

Sho says something under his breath, but before Ohno has time to ask Sho to repeat what he muttered, Sho has pulled over to one of the space in hourly parking lot. 

Just because he can Ohno gets Sho to deal with formal introduction with the kindergarten manager. He lets Sho work his charm with the teachers, standing on the edge of the teacher’s room, and waits until they obtain permission to formally question some of the Vic’s closest coworkers.

The manager offers them to have meet with the class that was under Vic’s supervision and gladly leads them to the common room where everyone is having their break time. Sho profusely thanks the manager for her kindness, and Ohno has to ask the manager to give them a minute and pull Sho to the side. 

“Just why are we interviewing some kids, Sho-kun?” 

Sho nods his apology at the manager who’s still waiting for them in front of the room’s door and with a low voice, he says: “They are potential witnesses, Sir. We must. And the manager has been kind enough to help us without requesting a warrant.”

Sho has a point and, on a second thought, since it’s his idea Sho will be the one who has to do this. Ohno doesn’t mind observing again. 

Especially since the kids on the break room are crazily excited to welcome and talk Sho even before the manager finishes the introduction. 

Chuckling darkly, Ohno stays near the door and enjoys the sight of Sho swarmed by enthusiastic children who talk over each other as they try to pull Sho into playing with them in exchange of information.

A boy steps into his view, and Ohno turns to him with a raised eyebrow. 

“Are you also a police officer like that man?”

Ohno rolls his eyes because is nothing like _that man_ —Sho’s now trying to calm a few of the little girls who are jumping around him. But he is a police officer. “Yeah, I am. Want to see my gun?”

The boy’s eyes widened before he frowns at Ohno with a cute pout. “You don’t carry a gun. You are not allowed to do so. Sensei said none of the good cop carries a gun.” 

There’s one smart cookie right there, Ohno sighs as he kneels and sits on the floor. He lowers his voice as he says: “Maybe I’m not a good cop.”

The boy gasps in surprise, his hand over his mouth, his eyes blinking with what Ohno sees as excitement. When his statement doesn’t appear to deter the boy’s curiosity, Ohno asks, “Why are you not playing with your friends?”

“They’re boring,” the boy says with a shrug, now settling down on the floor next to Ohno. “Sensei is not around anymore.”

“Yes, unfortunately she is not. I’m sorry,” Ohno says, noticing the honest sadness in the boy’s tone.

“I actually like Sensei.”

“Actually?”

“She’s very strict. But she’s okay.”

Ohno has to fight the urge to give the boy a pat in the back. He settles for a nod. “I’m sure she’s happy to hear that.”

“But she’s dead,” the boy says as he turns to Ohno with a look. “She can’t hear us anymore.”

Ohno rolls his eyes. “Kid. I’m just saying.”

The kid pouts as he keeps on starting at Ohno, and Ohno wishes that he were not going to cry. Really, he can’t afford to have kids crying now, especially if Sho’s busy—right now he’s already getting those kids under control, as he makes them line up in messy rows to queue for their turn to talk to Sho—on the other side of the room. 

The boy’s next question surprises him. “Are you going to catch the man who harm Sensei?”

“I am,” Ohno says with a firm nod.

The boy nods before he asks again. “And put him in jail for a long long time?”

“We’ll see about that a long long time thing later,” Ohno says. One thing bothers him though, and Sho’s idea of getting information from these kids doesn’t sound as bad now. “How do you know it’s a man?”

The kid only blinks at him, and Ohno senses a mixture of fear and bashfulness. His guts say the boy knows something the others don’t but Ohno plays it cool and tries his best to ask easy questions. “Have you ever seen a man do something bad to Sensei?”

The boy looks down to his lap before turning his head around to check if there’s someone else around that might be listening to his ‘secret’, and Ohno is brimming with impatience.

“One day,” the boy whispers to Ohno as he leans closer. “When Papa didn't come on time to pick me up, she was sad about something.”

“Sad?”

The boy has his thinking face, and it would be cute if Ohno has a bit more patience. “Like crying when she was talking on the phone. Like in a drama scene.”

Ohno ignores the drama scene reference, for now. “Did something happen then?”

“Only your boyfriend can make you cry like that over the phone.” 

“Oh really? And you know about this because?”

The boy huffs in cute exasperation as he stares at Ohno. “I told you it’s like a drama scene.”

“Okay, chill, kid,” Ohno says as he raises both of his hand slightly in a gesture of surrender. “What were you watching anyway? And then what happened?”

“And then she suddenly ran to the side window,” the boy says as he pointed at the far window on the other side of the room. Ohno can see half of it was just the school wall. “I had to hide behind the toy shelves. She didn’t see me, but I could see what she’s seeing.”

At that the kid stops, dramatically, knowing that he gets Ohno’s full attention now and Ohno lets out a loud sigh as he tries to keep his composure. “And then?”

The boy’s voice dropped a tone lower and Ohno leans down so the boy can whisper straight to his ear. “There was a guy waving from the side of the fence. Only the head, you know like in the drama.” 

Ohno doesn’t bother answering, only keeping himself bowed and waiting for the boy to continue. 

“And she cried harder, like in the drama when you got sad or someone wanted to do bad things to her.”

Ohno turns to see the far window again, in a new perspective. So, the Vic had once had an unwanted visitor to her workplace. He tries to line up his thoughts—checking CCTV would be his next move, but this kid is still next to him staring at him with his big innocent eyes. 

“Was that helpful? Was that helpful and will put the man in prison for a long long time?

“You did great, kid.”

The boy still pouts, is not entirely satisfied with Ohno’s short answer but he nods and doesn’t say anything else. 

“Now I have to go,” Ohno says, rising up and flaps his coat. He turns and sees the boy is actually waiting for something—what, Ohno doesn’t know but a good witness is a good witness. He relents and bends to whisper conspiratorially to the kid. It was a great info after all. “I want to trust you with one thing.”

The boy nods enthusiastically, happy that he’s finally getting some kind of reward for his precious story. “Yes? Yes?”

“Stick to the kids channel, kid. Watch rerun of Shimura Doubutsen if you must, stay away from the drama.” Ohno makes sure to keep his expression serious. “But, you did great. And Sensei will be proud of you.”

There’s a mixture of pride laced with sadness, and Ohno decides to give the boy a short hug. He can only hope that for the love of everything holy this curious boy will stay safe in the future. “Now, I have to go.”

“To catch the man and put him in prison for a long long time?”

“Yes.”

This time Ohno’s answer at least seems to be agreeable to the boy. He nods seriously at Ohno and steps aside to let Ohno pass through.

Taking his small win as an encouragement, Ohno braves himself and steps into the room to get Sho going. He tries to not step into any kid’s toes to get to the middle of the circle the kids have created for Sho. “We need to go, Sho-kun.”

Sho looks up to meet his gaze, wide smile on his face before it turns into a confused look. “But—“

“Now.”

In unison, the rest of the kids groan in disappointment at the prospect of having their new buddy is leaving in the middle of their fun, and that’s when Ohno knows he needs to retreat.

Ohno finds the manager watching the entire thing with a grin by the door, and quickly joins her. He watches Sho with the help of the other teachers trying to calm the kids. At the end, it takes a full 10 minutes to properly say goodbye, with the promise of everyone can walk them to the door and wave goodbye, 

Sho is still waving to the kids even if he and Ohno finally reaches the end of the hallway and is few steps away from freedom. However Ohno doesn’t wait for Sho when he steps out the gate of the school, minds already focusing on what the boy had told him.

He walks along the school wall and finally finds the spot outside that far window. Looking around he doesn’t spot anything that could be used as more clues. He needs to get a warrant to check the neighborhood CCTV, even if it would be just a gamble since the boy didn’t specify—and Ohno is not going to go to the trouble of interviewing the boy’s parents just to find out—exactly when he saw the waving guy.

“Ohno-san?”

He turns to see Sho is already next to him, and he just needs to confirm one more thing. He takes a step back and points to where he had just stand. “Stand here.”

“Sir, I don’t understand. What’s our hurry?” 

When Sho makes no move it only makes Ohno more impatient. He thinks he’s used up his daily patience quota for the day with the boy. “Did you get something useful other than the newest trend among little girls and their new favorite animes?”

“I— I don’t exactly, but— They were cute.“

Figures, Ohno rolls his eyes. Sho was just having fun with the kids, and now they must return to their work. He repeats his order. “Stand here.”

This time Sho complies, albeit completely clueless. “And?”

“Try to look over the wall,” Ohno says, pointing. Sho is a bit taller than him, and if he can stand and try to peek into the break room then they will have the average height of this waving guy—he might have been perverted stalker, but Ohno’s guts tell him that they are getting closer to unravel another fact. 

Sho has to be on his tiptoes to put his face up the wall and gets a clear view of the room—so this guy is a bit taller than Sho, since the boy can see his face. Ohno looks around and sees some possibilities of surveillance devices around the neighborhood. He ignores Sho’s additional report that the room is now empty since the kids have most probably return to their classroom, and forms a plan in his mind.

“We’re heading back.”

“Sir?”

Ohno is already making his way to go back to their car, knowing that Sho is frantically trying to keep up with his pace. “I want you to request CCTV footages from the neighborhood, if possible the ones that got a clear view of this street.”

At least Sho is quick on the uptake. “What am I looking for in them?”

“A suspicious guy loitering near that spot you just stood,” Ohno says as he points out the school gate. “Also go for the ones that can tell us the Vic’s routine. Go back a month. No, make it three months.”

“With the recognition software I can handle larger batches at the same amount of time.”

They arrive at their car, and Ohno finally meets Sho’s eyes, determined and bright. He reminds himself that Sho can handle more workload and that he can supervise other officers to do some of the legwork. 

He doesn’t have to work alone now. He has Sho, Sakurai Sho-kun, his kouhai by a year back in their Academy years, who now is a detective on a fast track to be one of the best in Tokyo—Ohno is going to make sure of that because he won’t accept less, who now readily deal with his mood and think fast on his feet, who—this one is hard to admit and Ohno will not do so until he really has to—excels in tech and lives up to his reputation so far.

He can trust Sho.

“Fine. Go back six months or longer if you can. I want an established routine mapped out.”

Sho nods as he makes another turn to reach the street. “I’ll put in the requests first thing and hopefully I can have something by the end of the day, Sir.”

Ohno doesn't respond. 

For the first time since they met, Sho’s answer sounds earnest. He’s been using _that_ tone when he addresses Ohno with ‘Sir’, the tone of subtle impertinence, like Sho hasn’t fully accepted that he has to work under Ohno. 

Now, something’s changing. It’s still too early to tell what and how but at least they’re on their first step to become partners now. 

He doesn’t want to let down his guard just yet. Also he hasn’t forgotten the way Sho muttered his complain earlier; although it does sound more like a suggestion now. He glances at the clock on the dashboard and sees that it’s almost late afternoon—the only thing that fuels Sho right now must be the excitement of having the permission to play with his fancy computers.

Ohno waits until they are stopping on an intersection before he says, “And also, pick up something quick for lunch on the way.” 

Sho gasps in surprise and from the corner of his eye Ohno can see he’s turning to Ohno with a happy beam on his face. “Thanks, Satoshi-kun!”

Ohno only tsks, pointing at the traffic light with as much seriousness he can muster. “Keep your eyes on the road. It's turning green.”

Sho nods with a broad smile. His voice is laced with a hint of laughter as he answers. “Yes, Sir.”

*


	3. Day 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole gang finally appears! 
> 
> A bit more on adjusting to partnership as Ohno learns how to work together with nerd!Sho.

Ohno runs his hands down his coat and flicks it with a flourish. 

The automatic door opens for him, and he strides across the building outer lobby with a cool glare, satisfied with people making way for him. His interviews were successful—he now has some alibis locked down and swiftly eliminated four of the Vic’s friends from the long suspects list. 

He arrives at the bottom of the stairs, now standing in the middle of the sidewalk, before stopping rather abruptly.

What now?

Sho had dropped him here a few hours ago, agreeing that he will take the interview with one important friend of the Vic who’s a stay home parent living a half an hour outside the city.

He pulls out his phone, and ends up staring at it. He hasn’t exchanged phone numbers with Sho—how should he give him a call then. Sighing, he supposes he should get to the nearest station and commutes back to the office—just when he’s starting to get used to having Sho driving him around.

His phone goes off; it’s Sho.

“Yes?” Ohno swipes and finds out it’s a video call. 

The camera seems to be placed on their car dashboard and he can see Sho’s driving, glancing at the camera briefly before focusing on the road ahead. “Ohno-san, I’m already minutes away from you. I’ll be right there. Please wait up.”

“Okay.”

The call ends, and Ohno frowns deeper at his now blank screen. 

How the heck did Sho do that? If he doesn’t have Sho’s number that should naturally mean that Sho also doesn’t have his. Or Sho has his? And Sho says he’d be right here, which supposes to mean that Ohno should not move from where he’s standing now—huffing, Ohno wishes that they have the police comm right now, at least that would make communication easier.

But before he could think further, he sees a black sedan, their car Ohno needs to start remembering that, slows down and stops at the side of the road. The window slowly rolls down and he can see Sho’s waving at him from the driver seat. 

That was fast. 

“How the hell did you do this?” Ohno asks the moment he gets into the car. 

“I have my way.” Sho smiles as he drives away after Ohno finishes buckling his seatbelt; it’s that annoying smile of his, and Ohno doesn’t like it. “Did your interviews go well?” 

“They did.”

“Mine not so much,” Sho says. “He claimed that he hasn’t had any contact with the Vic in the past years. I double-checked his statement with his media accounts and everything seems to ring true. At least we can cross him off the list.”

“We also can cross off the ones on my list, too. They said they drifted apart from the Vic a few years back when she moved to the other side of town.”

Sho nods with a hum and Ohno is distracted enough from his earlier question and decides to use his time to try lining up the next tasks for them once they get back to the office. He gets his notebook from his coat pocket and reviews their list, and finds a line not yet checked out

“Did you receive the tox screen yet?”

Sho frowns before he answers, “I don’t think so. At least not to our desks. I could ask Kiriyama if they’ve received it for us.”

“No need,” Ohno says with a sigh. He can already tell what happened to the delay in the tox report. “We’re stopping by the lab before we get back.”

“Now?” Sho turns to him at the red light. And when he sees Ohno only stares resolutely at him, he carefully says, “You need to report to the Chief in an hour, Sir. I suppose you would have to let him know that you’d be late if we’re going to stop by the lab.”

Ohno tsks. Sho is right; he forgot about the afternoon meeting. Sho is still waiting for him, his hand already hovering on the navigation dashboard to most probably enter a new route for them, but Ohno needs to make a decision. “Fine. Stay in the course then. I just have to do this over the phone then.”

Slightly pleased when Sho doesn’t comment and only drove away in silence, Ohno leans back on his seat and place a video call on one of his speed dial numbers.

He only has to wait a few seconds before the call connected, and instead of a greeting, tone dry, Ohno directly says, “Nino, just why am I not getting that lab result yet?”

“Good morning to you. How’ve you been? I’m well, thank you. It’s very kind of you to ask,” Nino says with a chuckle. “Always the impatience, Oh-chan.” 

“And?”

“And, it’s finally done this morning. It’s currently being couriered to your office as we speak. Talk about timing.”

Ohno smiles coldly. “I know you’re the best but it’s been a week. Was it so complicated?”

“I had it in my priority list but we need time to process it. You always bring me the best challenges. Your Vic was drugged that’s for sure, and I pinned down some high possibilities, but whoever did it made it an effort to use some of the rare black market ones.”

“I’ll read them up then—”

Nino cuts him, leaning over the screen in scrutiny. “Are you attempting to drive a car again? Oh-chan, haven’t you learned from last time?”

“I’m not driving, so you can chill,” Ohno says with an eye roll. “I have a new partner and he’s driving us around now.”

“Oh, that’s cool. Is he driving next to you? Pan to the right, Oh-chan, I want to see him.”

“No.”

Nino on the screen is snorting, and Ohno can hear Sho’s trying to hold his laugh next to him. 

“Come on. You got your result and you’re still en route. Oh-chan I’ve been here since last week, working hard on your report and waiting for you to come over—and since you were not kind enough to do so, at least give me something here.”

Ohno doesn’t even respond to that, only panning his phone a bit so half of Sho’s face can be in frame.

“Hi there, new partner.” Nino says with a little wave.

Sho nods with a polite smile—why are they meeting red light again, Sho’s eyes are supposed to be on the road. “Ah. Nice to meet you Ninomiya-san.”

Nino laughs at Sho’s stiff introduction. “Oh, he knows who I am. Good for him. Introduce me properly when you stop by next time, will you Oh-chan.”

“Yeah,” Ohno grumbles. “That result better be useful.”

“Of course it will,” Nino says with a grin before he raises his voice. “What’s your name, new partner?” 

“Sakurai Sho, Sir,” Sho answers promptly, his tone amused.

“Oh, he’s cute,” Nino chuckles. “Oh-chan, make sure you bring Sho-chan over and we can have dinner toget—“

Ohno ends the call, a bit too forceful in tapping the button but he’s beyond caring. That’s just too much for a phone call, even with Nino. And just in case something else comes up, he puts his phone on the dashboard, screen facing down. 

He can feel Sho’s laughing next to him, and without giving him a glance, Ohno asks. “Just why the hell you also know who Nino is?”

Sho clears his throat, and when he speaks next at least his voice sounds serious again. “Everyone knows Ninomiya Kazunari.”

True, everyone most probably does, Ohno sighs, after all Nino is one of the high profile and best crime lab specialists in the country, It doesn’t mean that Sho needs to be friends with him immediately though, Ohno huffs.

They both are silent for the rest of the drive, but just seconds after Sho parks the car in the basement garage, he turns to Ohno with a serious expression.

“Sir?”

Rather alarmed, because this is the most serious Sho had probably looked all through this week, Ohno frowns. “What?”

“Are you properly encrypted for a video call?” 

“Am I what? 

“Your video communications? Are they encrypted?” Sho points out at Ohno’s phone on the dashboard. “I noticed from our last call that your call was too clear, and that could be one of the reasons.”

“Maybe. I don’t know,” Ohno says. What is Sho talking about? “What do you mean encrypted?”

Sho lets out a loud surprise gasp, his eyes large in what appears to be genuine shock. “Let me look at it.”

Ohno is fortunately faster than Sho, already anticipating Sho’s reached hand to get hold of his phone. He bats Sho’s hand away with a hard slap, and taking his phone and clutching it against his chest. “Why should I?”

Sho’s eyes are locked onto Ohno’s phone, “Let me check. Please. Sir. I’m just going to check. It will take less than one minute. It’s for your safety.”

There goes the word—safety always comes first, and Ohno reluctantly gives Sho his phone, locked, not willing to fully cooperate in having his phone scrutinized for what he considered as nothing serious. Or maybe, he just wants to irritate Sho’s more. 

And Sho looks up after finding out, squints at Ohno, before accepting the challenge. He takes a few seconds to stare at Ohno’s smug face before trying. He looks frustrated several times, before he beams. “Ah. I should’ve known.”

Ohno only pouts. Sho doesn’t suppose to know. Sho should've known. Right?

“Ohno-san, it’s not safe to use your birthday as your phone password.”

Ohno splutters. “I don’t— How the hell do you--?”

“I can give you pointers on how to make it stronger,” Sho says as he taps and swipes on Ohno’s phone screen quickly. “And, ah as I expected, you have your encryption option disabled. I’m going to turn that option on. And maybe getting you security app will be best so you’d be—”

“What are you doing with my phone? That’s enough. Give me back my phone!”

“No!” Sho, out of expectation, swings around to avoid Ohno’s hand swipe, glaring at Ohno seriously, and shaking his head. “No, Sir. This is a serious matter. You need this app so all your communication will be secure and whenever you’re in—“

“You’re meddling. If it were up to me I’d still have that flip phone. Everyone was so demanding that I upgraded.”

“Flip phones will be safer, I agree, but that’s not a reason to ignore technology. You can never risk— Hey!”

Ohno snatches his phone back from Sho’s grip. He glances at the glowing screen—there’s some updating going on with some blue bars moving to the right indicating growing percentage, but he’s not going to mind that now. He locks his phone and, before Sho snatches it back, puts it in his coat pocket, away from Sho’s reach. “That’s enough.”

“Ohno-san.”

“We have work to do, Sho-kun.” He unlocks his door and without looking back, he step off the car and says, “Let’s go.”

“I will get your phone updated even if I had to sneak around and steal it from you. It’ll be for your own safety and you won’t regret it. Sir. You’re just saying no now. Just wait till everything is set up. Sir!”

Ohno has to admire the level of Sho’s determination, but really they need to go back to the office now; he has a report he needed to read before the obligatory annoying meeting. 

He slams his door closed without ceremony, going straight to the elevator and if Sho is not quick enough he wouldn’t hold the elevator door for him, that at least should teach him a lesson this time. 

*

Ohno closes his eyes, and lets out a tired sigh, now sitting near their board with both his legs up on the desk, his thinking pose—which sometimes also involves napping but he has a solid reputation and no one dares to bother him if he’s like this.

He’s been staring at the murder board for what feels like forever since he got back from the meeting with the Chief—even when it is probably only less than an hours. They updated the board but even after using his old school way and Sho’s more advanced approach, they still haven’t found further links, more clues, or new threads to investigate. 

They’ve gone through investigating witnesses, digging through social media data, and examining lab reports. Connection has been made, leads have been followed through, and necessary legwork had been done. In the last few days, he can feel Sho’s frustration growing; it’s his first case, Ohno understands, and he must have been hoping for a smooth start, yet things don’t always work their way. 

He swivels in his chair, turning to find Sho is still at the same position as the one Ohno found him when he got back from the meeting: hunched back, eyes on his screen, typing things rapidly in random intervals, while huffing and pouting every other minutes. He’s also not getting anywhere—and he doesn’t even care that it’s past lunch times.

“What are you doing?”

“Sir?” Sho startles and meets Ohno’s stare with his tired eyes and stubborn pout.

“With that,” Ohno points to Sho’s computer station. “What are you doing with that?”

“I’m following up on crosschecked findings from the Vic’s laptop and her financial data. The statistics of—”

“The salient. And in human language, Sho-kun.”

Sho doesn’t even roll his eyes, already expecting the request somehow—Ohno has given him a long lecture a few days ago how Sho should tone down the technical jargon so the rest of simple-minded people like him could understand. “In short, the Vic has been getting a monthly allowance from an offshore account.”

Ohno frowns. That’s an important lead, one that they can follow up with more legworks. “And why haven't you reported this to me? Offshore means illegal in a fancy way, right?”

“Yes, Sir. It’s an illegal transfer. But the problem is I can’t find any solid evidence of the transfer.”

That doesn’t make sense, Ohno huffs. “But you said—”

“She’s definitely getting an allowance, in a large sum, But there’s walls that kept on blocking me from searching deeper,” Sho says, leaning back on his chair and sighing tiredly. “It’s like someone has put trackers on related search, and I’ve been having difficulty to pin down the source because they keep on blocking me. Unofficially I can say it’s high-grade tech, the costly kind. Someone really went to the great lengths to not leave trails; it’s probably from someone up there.”

“Up where?” Ohno finds himself looking up to the ceiling in reflex before he curses internally for failing to resist.

Sho answers with a grim face. “Up there. The rich and important in the high chain of, most probably, political world.”

Realization sinks and Ohno can only say, “Fuck.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought,” Sho says with a nod, his tone serious. He turns to his screen again, clicking something. “So, until I can pin down something solid, I figure I’d just keep at working on it. This is definitely not the usual murder, Ohno-san.”

“All murder case is similar, usual or not. Yet, some are perpetrated by bigger and more powerful assholes,” Ohno says. He considers his option—he doesn’t like dealing with high profile cases simply because they are “Give me the name.”

“Sir?”

“Give me the name anyway. The name you can’t pin down.”

Sho mentions a name—a rare surname something something Kenzo—which doesn’t ring any bell for Ohno. “And who’s this Kenzo?”

“He’s the oldest son of a House of Councilors of the National Diet. From his university days, he has been projected to be a sole successor of the family business until his arrest for possession three years ago. Due to his father's connection he managed to get out of court settlement. His arrest files are sealed. But it is an open secret that he keeps his lavish and illegal lifestyle, with his alcohol use disorder and large share over few high-class prostitution establishments in Chiba.” 

“How on earth do you know all that? Wait I don’t want to know,” Ohno says with a shake of head. He turns his attention back to the board. Sho has mentioned several interesting “Do you have basic description?”

“I do. Just give me a second.”

Ohno is already rising from his chair, walking to the board. The command for Sho to have one of the Kiriyamas to print that description so he could put it on the board is already on the tip of his tongue when a page from Sho’s projection shifts and in the next second the summary of Kenzo’s citizen file appears on the board.

That’s neat, Ohno has to admit, but he’s already focusing on skimming the personal data. He comments as he reads: “He went to the best schools—that should give him a good network. He also travelled a lot. Nice one with the immigration list, Sho-kun. That’s good work.”

“Is there a connection between a kindergarten teacher and the son of an elite politician?” Sho asks as he moves the cursor on the board to highlight Kenzo’s education list and creates few arrows to link them to the summary of the Vic’s citizen file Ohno pasted on the board.

That’s really neat, Ohno rolls his eyes; most probably Sho is just showing off so Ohno doesn’t comment on it. 

“She went to the same university,” Sho reads. 

Ohno steps away from the board to get his notebook, checking his witness interview notes and trying to find which Vic’s friend went to the same university.

With Sho’s help they eliminate several people and come up with a short list of their small circle in university days. 

Sho creates a few more wobbly arrows, adding new names to the board. “She was discreet in their friendship, which worked to her favor when she was alive, but now that we need information everything is blurry.” 

Sho continues talking, a few more pages and notes appear on the board, but Ohno is already lining up the case structure in his mind. 

This is a good lead. 

This is a damn good lead. 

However, all they have now is substantial evidence—and he suspects this is all they are going to have, considering the hardship Sho has to deal with electronic digging. They will need a full confession to get this pinned down. And that could be tricky, knowing how much connection Kenzo had. They will need a full clearance from the Chief—which can take days to deal, that’d be enough time for Kenzo to go underground. 

“Sho-kun?”

“Yes?”

Ohno ignores the lack of address—there’s too many things he needs to plan now. He wants Sho to help with something. “Can you locate where Kenzo is residing now?”

There’s a series of rapid keyboard clicks before Sho answers. “According to his last phone comm list, he’s currently residing at his mother’s town house. 

“I don’t want to know how you have access to his comm list,” Ohno says, fully aware that Sho must have been using several questionable methods to collect information. After all, Sho has said he’s working with hacking walls for offshore accounts, which would be even more questionable. They will need to talk about this later, but now time is of the essence. They need to move fast. “Double check on that and pack up so you’re ready to go when I’m back. I need to make some phone calls.”

“Are we going to interview Kenzo, Sir?”

At least Sho’s not asking where they are going. He’s learning, and learning fast, Ohno nods with dark delight. “Yes. Send me your substantial search result and his address to my phone now and I’ll meet you up in the garage in 30.” Without waiting for Sho’s confirmation, he gathers his jacket and coat, and heads out to the nearest empty conference room to make calls. 

Sho is already behind the wheel when Ohno arrives at the car, and before long they are already on their way to Kenzo’s mother residence. 

Sho is too quiet, Ohno belatedly notices. Sho always tries to make conversation, be it Ohno interested or not in responding, and now there’s an inexplicable coldness in the car. 

Ohno cannot help to frown; Sho must be planning something—Ohno knows this from experience back in the academy—for all Sho’s excellent work he always needs that small amount of time to be silent and mentally plan. 

Ohno was about to ask Sho what’s with the silence when Sho makes a turn to a small alley and double parks in a no park zone. It’s one of the rare times when Ohno witnesses Sho moves so fast: opening the door, attaching their on duty light on the car roof, before leaving the car—and Ohno—, slamming the door close and breaking into a run to the convenience store next to the alley.

What?

“Sho-kun! Where are you going?” Ohno can only hear a faint reply, as Sho is two steps away from entering the store, something that sounds like _food_ , when he looks back and answers.

Ohno sighs and leans back against his seat.

Ohno despises following rules in general, but it doesn’t mean that he’s all up to break laws and cause chaos on civilian terms. He can hear the horns started blaring from the cars behind them and several people on the sidewalk staring accusingly at him—well, Sho has better hurry. 

A knock on his window only makes him roll his eyes again. Great, now he has to deal with people—he will kick Sho’s butt later. He rolls down his window and turns to meet a street police officer, holding his bike as he bends down to question him. 

Ohno pulls out his badge and shows it to the officer.

The officer snaps in attention and gives Ohno a stiff salute. ““Pardon me, Detective. But you are causing a disturbance here, Sir.”

“It’s just going to take a minute. My partner needs to purchase some emergency supplies.”

“I see, Sir.” The officer looks wary and there’s another series of car horns again, “But I would have to ask you to move your car. It would be better—“

“I said it’s only going to take a minute. He’ll be right back.”

“Yes, Sir,” the officer says with a nod, but he’s determined, Ohno can tell. “I understand. But it would be much more—“

Ohno was ready to snap at the officer—does he think he and the cars behind them are having inconvenience? Ohno is the one most inconvenient here; he’s definitely going to kick Sho’s butt when they got back to office—and then Sho’s out of the konbini and upon seeing the cars behind theirs he runs back to the car and shoves his two bags of food. 

“There, my partner is back. We will be driving away now.” Ohno says to the officer who is now eyeing Sho’s plastic bag—filled with snacks and drinks inside—and promptly setting up the car on to drive.

“Our apology for the trouble, Officer. We’ll be going now. Have a good day.” Sho sets on driving and in one smooth move, he’s driving away, leaving another series of car horns behind them. 

Ohno is too stunned to even start scolding Sho, and all he can say is “What the hell, Sho-kun?”

“Lunch, Sir. If we’re going to be on the field till later tonight, I need my lunch now.”

It’s only when they’re already making turns for the highway, Ohno notices the large plastic bags shoved on his lap and as he peeks inside he can see Sho has bought variety of onigiri and bread, along with several bottles of tea and cans of coffee—and why the hell he has this on his lap, Ohno can only huff his irritation again.

Sho answers his confusion soon enough. “Could you unwrap an onigiri for me?”

“Can I what?”

“An onigiri. The one with the umeboshi, please. Sir.”

There goes _that_ tone again, and Ohno’s only answer is: “Huh?”

Sho doesn’t appear to be wavered by Ohno’s rising tone. His voice stays steady, albeit laced with impatience. “Sir, I really need that onigiri. Right now. Please. Don’t make me violate more traffic rules than I’d already done by pulling over in the middle of the highway so I can unwrap my onigiri.”

Ohno is rendered speechless this time—this new partner of his is _ordering_ him to serve him food in the middle of work? Yet, after that outburst resulting in them causing one of the silliest and worst congestions in a one of Tokyo busy districts, Ohno knows that Sho means business when it’s about food. 

With a loud sigh, he makes sure Sho knows that he’s not doing this willingly, making large gestures as he haphazardly pulls the plastic wrapper away and shoving an onigiri in front of Sho.

“Oh, bless,” Sho says before taking a huge bite. He sputters some of the rice as he glances at Ohno. “Thank you.”

Ohno only tsks, and returns his attention to the plastic bags—Sho really buys a lot of things, and there’s a cold coffee can. Coffee sounds like a good idea now, and Ohno wonders if he can lower his pride just a little bit and forget his annoyance with Sho to ask him if he can get one.

“Could you unwrap another onigiri?” Sho says with his mouth full, already gobbling almost all of the onigiri in his hand now. “And I’ll have the tea, if you can open the bottle for me please. You’re welcome to have anything you want. I bought your favorite chocolate bread and cold coffee for you.” Sho turns with a smile—his eyes bright and there’s finally some colors on his pale cheeks, looking like he’s feeling better now that he already gets his food. “Sir. Please, Sir.”

Ohno tsks again. 

But this means that he doesn’t ask to have that cold coffee can, and why the hell Sho also remembers that he likes chocolate bread, he doesn’t want to know. He unwraps another onigiri hastily and shoves it in front of Sho who’s grabbing it eagerly and flashing Ohno his cute thankful smile.

As he broods and sips his cold coffee for the rest of their way to Kenzo’s mother residence, Ohno refines his plan: he’s definitely going to kick Sho’s ass the moment Sho parked and they’re out of the car. After thanking him for the coffee, of course, he’s not that mean.

*

He has completely forgotten his plan to kick Sho’s when they arrive, completely distracted by Kenzo’s mother residence. It’s huge—Ohno wonders if they are actually occupying the whole block, which could possibly be true judging by the tall wall surrounding the property. 

“Ohno-san,” Sho says, his voice polite. “May I do the introduction this time? I believe it would be better if we approach this with as much as care as we could possibly can.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Sho offers him a small smile. “We both know that your interview technique is rather…unconventional.”

In other words, Sho’s telling him that it’d be better if Sho’s doing this because he knows that Ohno will be too straightforward—just like he always does to other people. Arguing that it is best to go straightforward most of the time as it always generates the truth faster is probably not the best. Ohno sighs and relents—just this once—and waves his hand to give Sho a go ahead. “But in case you fail, we’re doing this my way.”

Sho nods, and steps forward to ring the intercom.

Within five seconds of the response—presumably by Kenzo’s mother herself, Ohno deduces, the voice is too rude to belong to one of the household staff—Ohno can already tell that Sho’s method is definitely not working. The lady on the intercom did listen to Sho’s explanation but she pulls the last card too fast; asking Sho in a condescending tone to bring official warrant shall he plan to enter the premises and conduct a search.

“As expected,” Ohno only says when Sho returns to his side. Together they are standing in front of the house gate. And in the middle of the empty street, Ohno whips out his phone and makes a call.

Sho is watching him with slight confusion, and Ohno ignores his silent questions. He’s going to show Sho how things are done here in the Metropolitan Tokyo district. 

“Matsujun,” he says in greeting. “Turns out I need that warrant now.”

Sho’s eyes turn wide as he whispers in disbelief. “Matsujun? Are you taking to Matsumoto Jun the Assistant DA? The Matsumoto Jun? What? Ohno-san!” 

“Quiet, Sho-kun. I’m talking on the phone here.” Ohno slaps Sho’s flailing arm away and returns to his phone conversation. “You heard me right the first time. I need that warrant. Now,” A pause, before he lowers his tone because it would not do him good to go into a shouting match with Matsumoto—he usually loses. “Please.”

“Ohno-san,” Sho says again, this time his voice is louder. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Ohno just elbows Sho on the side hard and steps away to the other side of the street. “I’m already here and they refuse to accept us. That only raises the suspicion. We talked about this a few hours ago. Is the warrant ready?”

“Sir!”

“Yeah, I know who these people are. Sho-kun has me updated on city gossip already. What? Sho-kun’s my new partner.” A pause before Ohno growls to his phone. “Matsujun, this is not a time or place to catch up. I need that warrant now. Do I need to say please again? 

Ohno takes a quick glance and sees that Sho now has his hand over his mouth and blinking nervously. 

He has to wait for Matsumoto to give the answer he needs but they settle into an arrangement. “Ok. Cool. I’ll be waiting, Matsujun. I told you I’m here already. Don’t take too long it’s chilly out here.”

Ohno pockets his phone, satisfied with how his plan and how his phone calls from the afternoon turned out to work in their favour, and turns to Sho. “What?”

“You just— That was— That was impressive, I can’t believe you. And now what?”

“Now we wait,” Ohno says, enjoying the surprise and Sho’s raw praise. Now he knows how things work here and, most possibly how cool his partner is. “I still have my chocolate bread in the car. I guess it’s a good thing you made that stop earlier.”

“Sir?” 

Sho walks with him to the car, still in awe, and follows Ohno’s instruction to move the car so that they are parked across the house entrance.

Ohno settles for the wait; Matsumoto is going to take at least an hour he predicts. He sighs contently as he finishes his coffee; the bread was excellent, and Sho has calmed down and now is sitting silently next to him.

It’d be more intimidating and police-like to actually stand on lingerly near the house entrance, he doesn’t care if they are attracting attention, but the car is warm and somehow the repetitive beeps from Sho’s phone are oddly calming. No one will mistake them as something other than cops on stake out—well, at least he looks like a cop, Sho looks like a cute salaryman who missed his lunch though, Ohno glances over and flinches a bit to see Sho expertly balancing his phone in one hand and his last onigiri and a bottle of tea.

A hard knock on his window snaps Ohno from his concentration and next to him, Sho lets out an audible gasp. 

Matsumoto, all business and bundled in one of his fancy long coat, steps back as Ohno opens his door. “This better be good, Ohno-san.” 

“It will. Just you wait,” Ohno says. “Thanks for coming over.”

“My boss specifically directed me to deal with this cautiously and assigned me to serve this warrant personally,” Matsumoto says. “You owe me two round drinks this time.”

Ohno only smiles at him. He’ll deal with treating Matsumoto later, now they have a job to do.

“And this would be your new partner,” Matsumoto says, his eyes on Sho who is standing just a few steps behind Ohno. He steps forward and offers Sho a handshake. “Matsumoto Jun, nice to meet you.”

Sho nods nervously. “Sakurai Sho. Nice to meet you too, even in this circumstance, Sir.”

Matsumoto raises his eyebrows at how Sho addresses him and laughs. “There’s no need to be so formal.”

“Your reputation precedes you again, Matsujun. Sho-kun here seems to know everyone I don’t know why,” Ohno says with obvious impatience. “And Sho-kun stop being nervous. Now you all are properly introduced. Let’s go serve this warrant.”

Matsumoto only shrugs but he takes the lead and heads to the house entrance and presses the intercom. 

At the answer, he bows to the camera. “Good evening, Ma’am. My name is Matsumoto Jun from the District Attorney Central Office. I am here with two officers from the Metropolitan Police Department to serve a search warrant.” 

Now you cannot say no to that, Ohno smiles with dark delight. They are going to find something here, he can already feel it.

Matsumoto bows politely again before he continues, “I brought a printed copy of the warrant and you are welcome to examine the document before we proceed to conduct a search. I suppose it would be more convenient for all of us if we could discuss this inside, Ma’am?”

There’s a curt short answer from the intercom before a soft chime of the gate lock beeps and the large gate swings open.

Matsumoto leads their way in, and Ohno follows two steps behind him. Just before he reaches the house, he turns and in a soft voice reminds Ohno: “You better find something or both our butts are on the line for this.”

“We will, Matsujun. They won’t go to this length if they don’t have something to hide. Better yet,” Ohno pauses and turns to Sho. “Call backup, Sho-kun. Make sure they’re fully brief. Remember if my butt is on the line that means your butt is also on it.”

Matsumoto chuckles in amusement at how quick Sho obeys Ohno’s instruction and whips out his phone to start to make arrangements. He elbows Ohno lightly. “That’s a cute new partner you have, Ohno-san.”

Ohno rolls his eyes: yeah, Sho’s cute, but it’s not like Ohno’s going to easily agree with Matsujun out loud or telling Sho directly that he’s cute. But since Sho’s probably to busy working on coordinating back up to hear this one, he could tell Matsumoto one thing. “Yeah, he’s always been cute.”

*


	4. Day 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was planned as March chapter, but here we are now. Yeah. Anyway, in this one we get Ohno in a police action scene as these two handle a new case. And their partnership, mhmm, strengthens. :D
> 
> Updated warning tag for this chapter (just to be safe): minor violence, minor injuries.
> 
> .

Ohno glances quickly at the clock on the wall.

The new case they caught yesterday was gruesome.

A young male who apparently was once a member of some scary Shibuya underground gang was found murdered on an abandoned train platform at a station warehouse.

They went ahead working down their interview list straight from the crime scene, after Aiba tried for dental records instead of wasting time for fingerprints match since the Vic’s fingers were not in the best state for identification. They quickly found out his residence and canvassed his apartment in Ohno case, and worked further with his digital prints in Sho’s case. He had pushed for quicker lab results and focused on the crime scene surroundings, and Sho had been working with his thing—the computer stuff and all the graph schemes and online research he loves so much.

After securing few important testimonies, Ohno managed to catch up with several loose threads—checking up like crimes and potential links while Sho was, in lack of better word, doing his thing. They presented both their finding this morning and updated their murder board together. _Their_ murder board; that still sounds a bit funny to Ohno but he doesn’t mind it as much as he did a week ago.

They did considerable work non-stop and it’s late afternoon already.

They need a break.

Ohno turns in his chair to find in front of his screen, still with the hunched back and fingers flying rapidly in random intervals. He waits just a few moments until Sho huffs rather loudly in frustration—the now familiar sight makes Ohno want to smile.

“Sho,” he says, finding his voice soft.

Sho perks up and turns toward him immediately, meeting Ohno’s eyes with a confused blink.

The hell.

Ohno clears his throat loudly in an attempt to cover that one up—that was not supposed to happen.

“Sho-kun,” he says again louder and more pronounced, already denying that not a few seconds ago he broke character. He stands up instead and announces: “Let’s go.”

Sho stands up quickly, almost making a salute, but his mind doesn’t seem to be on the same page so he ends up swaying next to his desk. “Go? Where to? Did you just find something?”

Ohno doesn’t answer, only grabbing his coat and waving them with a flourish, trusting Sho to follow him as he makes his walk to the elevator.

This time Sho seemed to be able to read his lead better even if there’s certainly room for improvement. Sho has learned a lot in the past week. Now he can keep up with Ohno’s sudden move and pace better than he was in the first days, and when they step out the building, Ohno knows Sho is just two steps behind him.

They walk in silence through the back alleys for a few minutes, through the empty streets because lunch hour has passed while office hours won’t end for another few hours.

Ohno makes a sharp turn, stopping in front of a shop. He glances around and makes sure Sho is right behind him before entering the shop. He nods at the owner behind the counter, and like usual takes his seat at the corner table in less than two minutes.

“Are we having ramen?” Sho asks, carefully as he takes a seat in front of Ohno’s while looking around the small shop.

“Yes,” Ohno simply says and slides the plastic menu toward Sho.

The server comes, nodding at Ohno as he makes note of Ohno’s ‘the usual’ with a small smile and turning to Sho to wait for his order. When Sho’s finally decided, Ohno adds that they’ll be having a plate of gyoza to share.

“Why are we here?” Sho asks as soon as the server goes back to the counter to deal with their order.

Ohno takes a sip of his water. “We’re having lunch.”

Sho frowns at Ohno’s ease before taking suspicious glances of the shop surrounding. He asks again, this time in a hushed voice. “Is there something in this ramen shop?”

“There’s nothing like _that_ here. It’s just a ramen shop,” Ohno says, finding Sho’s suspicion a bit out of place even if it’s hard to blame him for asking. Perhaps he needs to make things a bit clearer. “And if you’re nice, it’s going to be my treat.”

To Ohno’s dismay his answer doesn’t lighten up Sho’s face like he expected it to do. Instead, Sho frowns deeper and says: “It’s just ramen.”

Why can’t his intention come across to Sho? He was trying to do something good for him once; if it weren’t for his favorite ramen, Ohno would have stood up and left Sho to return to work. He ends up huffing, crossing his arms over his chest, and says, his tone final: “It’s _not_ just ramen.”

Sho doesn’t say anything else, but Ohno can see him blinking rapidly several times before lightly shrugging and letting the topic go.

But as they wait Ohno tries to take in his surroundings, trying to see what Sho’s seeing. There’s only two tables occupied near the entrance—even the owner is taking it easy behind the counter. There’s nothing suspicious in the shop he quickly concludes—since he’s been frequenting this shop often enough, but then again Sho might mistake the simple offer of lunch. He decides on not correcting Sho on this one though; Sho’s not going to complain further once he samples the ramen—no need to start an argument with Sho when he’s hungry; it’d not get anywhere, Ohno has learned in the past week. Sho’s in for a treat though, the ramen in this place is excellent; Ohno has no doubt whatsoever about that.

The server returns with their order and Ohno hums softly with the anticipation; it’s been a while since he makes time to eat here.

But, a loud “Oh—” pulls Ohno into attention.

Sho has his eyes closed with his face hovering just right above his ramen bowl. A dreamy smile forms as another “Oh—” falls out of his open mouth in apparent awe and excitement. He opens his eyes slowly as he inhales the scent of tonkotsu. “Oh?”

Ohno gives a short nod, and apparently that’s the response Sho needs before practically dives into his steaming bowl.

The sight is—almost, if not totally—worth all the irritation from earlier: Sho’s hand is slightly trembling in excitement as he tries to scoop the broth into his spoon; the sound of the first slurp is messy and one second later, Sho’s face lights up with delight before settling into a wide dumb content smile. He doesn’t seem to realize that Ohno’s staring now, already running on one track mind with his eyes dead set on his bowl.

After trying his best to gather as much as noodles with his chopsticks, Sho’s face is practically on top of the bowl when he shoves in a large mouthful of noodles and inhales them. He groans loudly—because the ramen is that good or because he is scalding his tongue, Ohno is not really sure—before he inhales everything with noisy slurping sounds.

“Oh!” Another loud groan this time, Sho’s already on his second mouthful—or it should’ve been counted as the fifth, with how he keeps on slurping noodles into his full mouth instead of stopping when he has to.

“Sho-kun.”

Sho looks up from his bowl while making tiny noises as he tries to huff his breath and chew with his cheeks puffed up before swallowing too quickly to be considered proper.

Not that Ohno cares about being proper.

Sho licks his messy lips, trying to catch the broth splatters, and looking up to meet Ohno’s eyes with his glazed large round eyes. “Yes?”

This sight—it has been too long, too many years, since he saw this precious sight. Ohno doesn’t hold back his grin this time; he doesn’t want to.

“You’re still a messy eater after all this time. There’s something—“ and then he reaches out across the table and leans forward to brush the tip of his finger on the corner of Sho’s lips. He wipes a piece of stray noodle off; this time it’s his turn to be surprised at the foreign yet funny and familiar sensation from the past coursing through him. “There.”

When he meets Sho’s eyes again, he finds Sho unmoving and blinking in surprise; somehow it gives him a sense of dark delight—no more pout because Sho’s missing his lunch, no more frown because Sho’s working too hard, no more sulking because he knows Sho’s going to smile his polite smile of his soon enough; it’s just them now, and their ramen.

At Sho’s confused face, Ohno then grins before looking away and digging into his ramen bowl. Not looking at Sho but knowing that Sho will be listening, that Sho will know now, Ohno says. “It’s _not_ just ramen, Sho-kun.”

*

Multiple reports are already waiting on his side of their shared desk when Ohno arrives at his office the next morning. Yet, the only sign of Sho’s already there is his coffee mug beside his computer and that their murder board is already updated.

He’s only started to go through the first one from Aiba when Sho returns carrying two stacks of folders.

“Good morning, Sir,” he says politely. “I hope you already talked to Ninomiya-san.”

For a long moment Ohno can only hear Sho shuffling some paper, typing with his keyboard again, along with the faraway sound of some people arriving to work at the other end of the office. Ohno finally hums even if his focus is still on the first page of the report coming from the morgue. “No. What did he want?”

“He said something about the lab report you asked to push through and that he couldn’t reach you.”

Ohno frowns and pulls out his phone from his pocket, only to find it off. “Dammit.”

He was already annoyed at the thought of heading to his table drawer and trying to locate his spare charger when Sho clears his throat and says: “You can use the office line if you want.”

But wouldn’t that require annoying setting up? Ohno sighs, already rolling his eyes, as he turns to Sho. “I can?”

“Yes,” Sho says with a sure nod. “I set the office line with a full spec for the video conference last week since you seemed to have none installed. I also have Ninomiya-san’s office number because he called here this morning.”

That’s because Ohno does not need people to start calling his office—or that’s what he thought before. Well, at least now that Sho’s here he can be the one who has to deal with the phone calls. At least now he doesn’t have to go through the trouble to get Nino’s report. “Set it up then.”

Sho goes to set a few clicks, and Ohno notices the screen next to their murder board blinks to life—was that screen already here before? There’s a series of dial tones before Nino’s smiling face appears on screen.

“What’s with the morning call?”

Nino laughs—assuring Ohno that he can hear him just fine. This office video call setup is pretty neat, but when Ohno turns Sho is not on his chair—that was fast, Ohno was sure that Sho was just there one second ago.

“Oh-chan, good morning. Nice bed hair, today, and you look scary as usual. You know, it was rude to be unreachable when I have news for you.”

“Nino.”

“I bet you haven’t had your coffee,” Nino says as he takes a sip from his tall mug of coffee.

True, but it’s rude right back for Nino to bring that up. He was about to retort when Sho comes to side with a mug of steaming coffee and sets it in front of Ohno. It'd be a waste to ignore it—also it smells heavenly—so Ohno takes slow sips, unable to stop closing his eyes in delight sigh—is it just him or the coffee is better now that Sho’s here?

“Thanks, Sho-chan.” It’s Nino who says so, head tilting to the left and waving cheerfully to Sho.

“Good morning, Ninomiya-san,” Sho says, sheepishly waving back and smiling until Ohno turns to him with a frown. “I’ll—”

Now that he has his coffee fix, he’s a bit more alert than before. But he really can do away without any of this pleasantry. Ohno reminds Nino: “I did not call you for a chitchat.”

“You’re always no fun,” Nino says with a smile. He picks up a piece of paper from his desk and holds it to the screen. “The field team brought me two threads from your scene, and that guy,” he pauses to point to his left, rechecks the video and then shifts the camera a bit so now Ohno can see Aiba eating his breakfast standing near, “passed me a similar thread found in the Vic’s teeth. Aiba-chan, say hi to your favorite detective in the city.”

“Hi, Sho-chan!” Aiba waves his chopsticks.

Ohno snorts.

“And good morning, Oh-chan! I agree with Nino-chan, nice bed hair today” Aiba says to him with a small bow and a smile.

Ohno only snorts again. Favorite detective in the city, huh? That’s most probably because Sho called Aiba the cool name of Death Doctor, Ohno’s sure.

Nino rolls his eyes fondly before waving the paper in his hand. “Anyway, the blue thread in particular, since you would want this to be quick, is actually coming from a rare blue coloring for cloth, primarily manufactured abroad—none of my domestic source searches panned out. It should be something used in imported fleece or even ready made clothing.”

That’s interesting. Ohno can hear Sho moving behind him before returning to his side with a photo. He flips to the camera so Nino and Aiba could see it on their screen. “Something like this one?”

A pause as Nino and Aiba wrestle their way to get a closer look to their screen, before Nino nods. “It certainly could be.”

Ohno snatches the photo from Sho’s hand and takes a closer look. The coat on the photo certainly has the same color, and perhaps the texture if the photo does justice. “What is this? Where did this come from?”

“The field team found it on the Vic’s coat hanger, Sir.”

“Mhmm.” Ohno frowns. So far he has his investigation focused on the photos of the Vic’s apartment and mostly on the crime projection notes Aiba has provided. He hasn’t had time to review the belonging pictures; it’s a good thing that Sho caught this one.

Nino’s soft question startles Ohno back into focus. “And since we found threads in his mouth that means the Vic was biting his own coat?”

“That’s one possibility,” Ohno says with a nod. It doesn’t sound farfetched. “What do you think, Aiba-chan?”

“Nino-chan can give you a more precise estimation after he looked at it.” Aiba comes closer to screen—he’s slurping the last of his natto and Nino is scrunching his nose beside him. “Can I get that picture now?”

Already anticipating the request, Sho makes a few clicks on the tablet he’s holding and nods. “I’d sent it to you just now, Ninomiya-san.”

“Neat.”

They wait for Nino to load the picture and wait another moment for Aiba asking Nino to enlarge a few parts of the photo. He leans closer to the screen and squints at the photo. “There’s few patches on the sleeves of the coat. My take is that the Vic’s probably bit the left one since I found the thread stuck on the bottom second premolar. He had to tightly bite the coat since the thread was stuck rather deep. I wrote that on my report already.”

“I’ll give it reread it then.” Ohno nods and makes note to go to that part of the report next. He shifts his attention to Nino. “How long would you need to confirm if I sent you the actual coat today?”

“An hour will give you the confirmation. But if you want something more, you need to be specific so I can push through it.”

“Another set of DNA finding would be nice,” Ohno mutters. He considers their option and some other possibilities. “Or maybe the coat was not his.” He then turns to Sho. “Is there something from your social media digging that can confirm that?”

“Oh, there should be,” Sho says with a nod, and immediately makes note on his tablet. “I’ll start the prelim search.”

Ohno lets Sho be for now, that’d keep him busy. He returns his attention to Nino: “I’ll have one of the Kiriyamas deliver it to you right away.”

“Can it be Shigeoka? He knows he needs to bring food if he comes here. I’d not say no to free lunch.”

“Who?” Ohno frowns over Nino’s excited request. He did say Kiriyama, who else could be there?

Sho chuckles behind Ohno, still typing on his tablet. “I’ll see to it, Ninomiya-san.”

Nino smiles sweetly at them, leaning back on his chair with a smug smile. “Sho-chan is so nice.”

Ohno shifts his seat, effectively blocking Nino’s view of Sho. He glares at Nino with a pout. “I can be nice.”

“Sure you can.”

At the sound of Nino and Aiba chuckling, Ohno snaps his finger—and right on cue, Sho cuts the connection.

Good. 

At least Sho understands him better now; a warm pride runs through Ohno. Only to have his mood sours again the next second when he turns and sees Sho readily waiting for his instructions looking with a smile, that annoying cute smile.

“Get me those crime scene photos. And go start your digging after you make sure that Kiriyama is assigned to make the delivery.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Ohno can the amusement tone in Sho’s voice but he ignores it. He’s getting better at doing so. He needs too—it’s the only thing he could think of now that will work against that annoying cute smile.

*

Nino’s later result only confirmed their initial suspicion but brought nothing new to the murder board. Sho managed to locate several close friends of the Vic based on the blue coat, but their follow up interviews didn’t yield new facts, again only confirming the Vic’s activities and daily life.

It feels like they’re back to square one.

Ohno tries hard to stomp on all his irritation with the investigation block; they’ve been at this case for three days, and all they’ve done is circling through the wide network the Vic has before his demise. Something must be done. Anything.

And if it means they’re back to square one, perhaps reworking the case from the beginning will get them somewhere different this time.

They are on their way back to the station after a series of fruitless interviews with the Vic’s family across town. Sho’s been quiet the whole ride, probably staying so since he sensed Ohno’s mood. And Ohno is not looking forward to go back to their office, knowing that they would only go around documents again and most likely not finding anything.

“Where did that best friend of the Vic live again?” He asks.

“Sir?”

Ohno knows Sho hears him fine the first time, so he doesn’t answer and lets Sho take his time remembering as he drives through slow traffic.

“Do you mean Yamato-san? I have to consult my notes to be sure,” Sho says—Ohno holds back his eye roll, knowing that Sho will know precisely even without consulting his notes because that’s what he does. “But, I’m sure it’s around Kita Akabane station. Are we making a stop there now?”

Ohno only nods, letting Sho battle the traffic and adjusting the car navigation system as he tries to remember his impression of the Vic’s best friend during their initial interview. He’s been going back to the end of their interview—about Yamato stating that he was sorry the Vic had to die on the train platform, even before Ohno or Sho informed him so. He’s been so focused on the crime scene evidence that he set that hunch aside. And now since they are back to square one, it’s time to make sure he checks that off his list and doesn’t miss anything else.

Sho parks their car on a corner and lights their on-duty light on above the roof. Ohno is too focused to comment on Sho’s choice—Sho can deal with the traffic violation fine when it comes to that—and goes out the car after having his field comm in place.

“It’s that housing complex, right?” he asks, pointing to the large establishment on their right, already striding toward it.

“Yes, Sir. Third floor.”

They made it to the apartment door without a fuss, but got no answer even after a few minutes of waiting. Deciding that it was a useless trip, Ohno gave the door a hard kick in frustration before leaving the premises fully annoyed.

On his earpiece, he can hear Sho’s voice reporting to Dispatch that they were unsuccessful in their attempt to re-interview Yamato at his residence. On their way to the car Ohno was about to scold Sho for being too nice to the Dispatch officer, that this is fieldwork not some chit chat time, that at least as a detective Sho needs to pull off some kind commanding presence with them, when he sees Yamato—Ohno would recognize that flashy coat wherever, the same one the man used during his witness interview, walking toward his complex.

Their eyes meet.

And as if in slow motion, Yamato does a double take, recognizing Ohno, shuffling his phone into his pockets, before running away.

“Stop it right there, you punk!” Ohno curses loud enough to startle Sho and immediately breaks into a run.

He makes a sharp turn around the corner, almost colliding to a passerby before skidding smoothly without breaking his pace. Ohno can see Yamato make another sharp turn—that punk ass does know his way around here, dammit—and finds out that it was a dark alley. He swears under his breath, Ohno scowls; he hates dark alleys—can bad people just run around a large street or even better can they just stay home and punch each other’s face?

Yamato ends up cornered into the dead end, only to start climbing the fence to the other side.

The hell.

And Yamato has the guts to throw a smirk over his shoulder once he lands on the other side.

Ohno wants to curse again but that’d required effort. Resigned to his obligation to protect and serve and apparently climbing fences to chase some punk ass, he uses the momentum and gives the alley sidewall a hard kick, propelling himself onto the top of the fence, folding his knees as close as possible to his chest as he flies over the fence, and landing gracefully at on other side of the fence.

“Ohno-san!”

It’s Sho’s voice—it could be over the comm on his ear that he’s already forgotten or somewhere behind him—but Ohno doesn’t give it a spare thought. Trusting Sho to follow him and have his back covered, he breaks into a run again, his knees complaining violently, but the thought of kicking Yamato’s punk ass hard later gives him his strongest motivation.

Another alleyway.

Ohno is so done with this punk ass.

And just when he thinks he lost Yamato—he couldn’t be that far ahead, Ohno almost managed to close in their distance at the previous intersection—Sho runs past him at an incredible speed.

What?

“This way! I think I know where he’s going!”

What? How? Just how the hell Sho caught up with him _and_ now is telling him where to go?

Ohno lets out a loud curse before breaks into a run again, this time following Sho’s into a zigzagged alley before emerging into a deserted shopping street—and only then he catches a sight of the back of Yamato’s bright jacket making a turn to another alley.

Ohno is so fucking done with this punk ass.

“There!” he shouts at Sho who’s already losing speed ahead of him. Ohno leads them into two more turns before he lost sight of Yamato and decided to stop, completely out of breath in the middle of another alley.

An alley that looks strangely familiar.

And he recognizes this alley—or at least it’s something he’s seen in photos already. “This is—”

They are standing in front of the right live house in the middle of a dark alley. Not that this shabby establishment could actually be called one—maybe they could fool drunk customer at night but in daylight the live house looks like an abandoned building, with lewd graffiti and

The entire alley looks like it’s filled with abandoned houses, but that doesn’t mean business is not running inside; this quietness is a perfect cover for any illegal activities.

“Yeah,” Sho says breathlessly as he stops just next to Ohno. He looks like he’s completely wiped, like he’s been running through three blocks—which he actually did, but his eyes are sharp and alert. “Those SNS photos— Some of them were— Taken in front of this place.” Sho takes a moment to level his breathing before he adds. “Looks like another abandoned shop though.”

True, Ohno huffs impatiently, but there’s definitely something here, he knows it, he just doesn’t know what. After all the fact that Yamato ends up here raising even more suspicions. Yamato is downright guilty, Ohno is sure of it, if not for the murder of his friend then for obstructing justice or for being a complete annoying punk ass.

“Stay behind me.”

“Are we—” Sho tries to say, but Ohno has already nudged the front door with the tip of his shoes and the front door swings open.

He ignores Sho’s loud grumble of “We are then—” behind him, followed by him reporting their address and that they’re going to investigate a suspicious building to Dispatch. 

He takes the first careful step inside the shop and touches the wall gingerly, feeling vibration of loud music against his fingers. Somewhere in the back of the building then—just like a regular live house, they would have sound cancelling walls, and this one seems to be of good quality considering the shabbiness outside. He walks toward the door at the end of the hallway—that’s where all the fun happened it seems.

“Sir, back up is going to be here in five,” Sho says softly from somewhere behind him.

I don’t need backup to deal with that punk ass, Ohno almost blurts out as he takes the last few steps to the door. The door suddenly opens, and everything comes to a halt.

Yamato appears, flanked by several of his punk ass friends, his sweaty face smirking. Now they all are crowding this small hallway, meters from each other. That’s it. Ohno is going to wipe that smirk off his punk ass face before all this comes to an ugly end.

“We’re from the Central,” Sho says, surprisingly calm and polite, as he takes a step forward next to Ohno. On the corner of his eyes, Ohno can see Sho’s showing his badge—all the textbook steps, as expected of him. “And we just want to talk to Yamato-san. There’s no need to get involved in this unless you all wanted to be taken in for obstructing on-going investigation. Please stand back.”

What they get in reply are sneers and derisive laughter.

Fine.

Fine. Sho did say please; Ohno can’t see the good of being proper and polite be when it comes to these punk asses, really. That was rather admirable of Sho.

Fine, if they want to be like that about this, then Ohno gladly accepts their challenge.

Poised to fight, Ohno takes a step forward. Yamato and his friends huddle closer and take a step back.

He lets out a loud; enough of this nonsense.

And he charges forward, going low to aim his right fist for a firm punch to the first friend’s stomach. Over the gained momentum, he swings round, pivoting on his heel, and lets out a grin when he feels his left fist connected to the second friend’s nose.

All hell breaks loose after that.

Someone shouts out and gets hold of Ohno’s suit collar, pulling him into the ground. He manages to hold out his stance and springs back to pull someone’s leg so they are all now wrestling on the ground. He hears Sho yelling Yamato’s name, ready to pin the next person, when someone’s knuckle grazes his jaw. The hell, Ohno growls and swings his right fist to the closest punk ass he could reach—that’d be the third one.

More shouts around him, and Ohno knows they’re coming from the backup officers. As they all struggle to, both, breaking the fight and throwing punches of their own, Ohno manages to take another punk ass down. At least several of these punk asses are being held down by the officers now, most of them crying out gibberish about them being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Ohno turns around and catches sight of Yamato—the coward is already trying to head for the door and abandoning his friends, Ohno wouldn’t have that. Balancing on one foot, he flings himself with a sudden spring toward the man. Colliding Yamato's back, Ohno lets out a loud grunt as he sends the punk ass tumbling down. Now with his knee against Yamato’s shoulder blades and his hand holding Yamato’s head down against the ground, Ohno finally gets this punk ass down.

“We just wanted to talk, you punk ass,” he says, giving the punk ass another shove and grinning over the moan of pain. Served him right. “Now you got to enjoy crying in your cell as you waited for that talk.”

An officer materializes next to him, holding handcuffs and ready to take Yamato with him. Ohno stands up carefully after making sure that the officer now had apprehended Yamato, flinching slightly at the pain now spreading over his jaw and knuckles. The hell, he wasn’t expecting this today.

He gives Yamato a kick on the ass before watching the officer pulling the punk ass to a stand and giving him one last kick.

“Sir, let’s not kick him more than you have to.” Sho says from somewhere behind him.

“Okay.” Ohno gives Yamato’s ass another kick, for good measure he told himself. He then turns to Sho with a smile, only to have his still erratic heart almost stop breathing seeing Sho lean against the wall, holding his right hand close to his chest. “Sho!”

Sho flinches when Ohno reaches out to touch his arm, and Ohno backs off real quick. But Sho lets out another grunt and Ohno relents to his instinct and steps forward to grasps Sho’s face with both of his hands. He asks, softly: “What? What is it? What hurts?”

Sho grimaces at the touch but a moment later Ohno feels him leaning against his hold. His eyes are still wide with pain though, and Ohno doesn’t like the cold sweat that’s running down Sho’s face.

In a quiet voice, Sho closes his eyes and breathes. “I think I broke my right thumb.”

“The hell.” 

After a few deep breaths, he can finally lets go of his hold on Sho, walking out of the building while barking orders at the first idle officers he sees. Making full use of Ohno’s reputation and rank, a few minutes later they’re already on their way to the nearest hospital with one of the patrol cars. Ohno can’t sit still though: they’re not going fast enough even with the sirens blaring.

He glances quickly to see Sho next to him bundled up with a blanket someone hastily draped on him before they head out. He draws a deep breath and resists the urge to further comfort Sho now because they need to get help for Sho first.

“Satoshi-kun.”

Ohno is too overwrought to correct him. “Mhmm?”

“I’ll be okay,” Sho says, turning his head slightly to meet Ohno's eyes.

You don’t know that, Ohno has his answer at the tip of his tongue. But the feel of Sho’s fingers tugging his coat sleeve before clutching it tightly startles him.

“Call Nakama and ask him to get our car, will you?”

Ohno frowns. “Who?”

Sho tries to laugh but it comes out as a hiccup and then he just whines in pain. “He’s one of the Kiriyamas.”

“Okay. Okay, I will.” Ohno says, his voice soft. He doesn’t want Sho to move about more than he has to. “Now just stay still. We’re almost there.”

Sho gives a weak nod and in a gesture full of trust he leans his head against Ohno’s shoulder. Ohno stiffens for an instant before settling too, his hand finding his own coat sleeve and Sho’s fingers before giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Everything was a complete mess today, but the hospital is near. He needs to preserve his energy so he can shout at the ER people to get Sho’s treated without delay. Yamato is in custody. He’s going to deal with the mess and all the annoying reports later. He’s going to call this Nakama later and yells at him just for the hell of it. But first thing first: he will get Sho properly taken care of.

*


	5. Day 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are 4 months later. This is an overdue update (and by now the plan of monthly update had thoroughly gone out of the window) but I finally had this chapter done after it refused to cooperate for months djfskfdjff.
> 
> This chapter also marks halfway of the series. A full cast lunch scene was on my list since day one and I’m glad I got to work with it here. :D
> 
> .

Ohno sighs irritably, louder this time.

He wants Sho _and_ the others to hear. By the other he means the two uninvited guests currently chuckling their amusement over lunch with Sho while sitting at the shared desk—the one they use to work and right now had just turned into a makeshift dining table— in their cubicle.

He balls a sheet of paper from his report—he’d made sure to pick the one that didn’t contain important or classified details, of course—and throws it across the cubicle to their shared desk.

It hits Nino’s head, prompting a loud ‘Ouch”—yeah, like it hurts or anything, it’s just a ball of paper.

“Rude!”

Next to Nino, Aiba chuckles and waves to him for probably the tenth time within the hour. “Oh-chan, just come here and let’s have lunch with us. I brought enough food for everyone. Your report could wait till later.”

By everyone Aiba means Sho, he knows; all these are for Sho. Still, he could see that Nino had also made sure that Aiba is getting him his favorite egg sandwiches.

Sho waves too—and dammit, he uses his cast hand—and if that’s not the one thing that made Ohno comply immediately, he doesn’t know what is—with a kind smile.

Sho’s smiling at him now.

However, the vivid memory from last week is still haunting Ohno—Sho was definitely not smiling then.

At the hospital, the only thing that held him back from launching into a demanding and overprotective partner was Sho’s grip out of pain to keep him near.

“You said you’re still training regularly. Let’s be honest here,” he had said. He had thought Sho was able to at least hold his ground and protect himself, but here they were.

“I do train regularly but it doesn’t include punching people.”

“Well, it should have.” It’d save all the fuss, Ohno wants to say. It’d save Sho’s ass from getting injured over some street fight. If only Sho stayed away, he wouldn’t have hurt himself. If only he’d moved faster, they wouldn’t have had to go to the hospital. But Sho’s voice was uncharacteristically soft when he answered, and that alone told Ohno that Sho has his own regrets; good, at least he would be more careful next time.

They fell into silence after that and Ohno debated on just leaving Sho there and returned to the crime scene—he needed to oversee the scene processing and if he could sneak in another kick in the ass for Yamato then perhaps it’d be worth the reprimand he’d receive later; the man had hurt his partner after all. Still, he sat there in the ER waiting room for a few more hours, drowning in regrets as he glared at the nice young doctors who were treating Sho in the next makeshift bed.

The heavy silence continued until the next day—Ohno was still mad at Sho for getting hurt, while Sho most definitely was still mad at himself for getting hurt.

New daily duty arrangement has been quickly approved by the higher ups for the following days. Sho is to be out of field investigation duty and working in the office for at least another week. Ohno saw how downhearted Sho is for the arrangement, but he’s on the higher ups’ side this time. No matter how often Sho protested there’s no way Ohno is going to allow Sho to go around on the field investigation with him; he just had to suck it up and recover first. But that also means Ohno only meets Sho twice in a day; once in the morning when he picked up assignments before he’s out for the whole day and once at night when he clocks out.

For the first time this week, he’s making time to go back to the office at lunchtime.

He was thinking of taking Sho for ramen, but apparently two of his friends—with Sho’s agreement he suspect—had devised a dumb plan of having shared lunch in their office.

Ohno was at the end of his plan formulation on how to have Sho follow him to the ramen place when Aiba loudly announced their arrival and immediately took a seat next to Sho. Nino saunters in, two steps behind Aiba, with a big grin and a salute to Ohno.

Now, Ohno is stuck with the ‘report’ Nino brought him—he did say it was an emergency but Nino didn’t have to bring it personally—and the three of them are having fun at the shared desk.

And he’s hungry.

And those sandwiches look so good. Ohno berated himself for forgoing breakfast and now he had less willpower to refuse their lunch just to make a point. Of course, after a few agonizing minutes, food wins over pride. Sighing loudly and making absolutely sure his annoyance is still radiating from his every being, Ohno finally walks toward the shared desk and takes a seat grumpily.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.” Nino smiles sweetly at him, and passes him a misshapen cream puff. “Here, have dessert first, you’ll feel better.”

Nino’s right: the first taste of the cream is heavenly, almost worth the pride he had to swallow, but Ohno’s still fixated on the egg sandwiches at the end of the table and he’s resolute on not leaving this table without at least eating two of them.

“Did you finish reading the report?” Nino then asks him.

Ohno nods, his eyes still closed, as he swallows the last bite of the cream puff. “That was fast work. You confirmed the poison.”

“And that it was the same substance found on your previous dead bodies,” Nino says, before adding quickly and pointing at Aiba. “He’s also done some fast work.”

“The Chief has asked us to double our effort but even with the solid lab result, we still hit a dead end on our suspects. They all alibied up pretty tight.”

“Mhmm.”

Sensing the seriousness, Aiba leans forward and slides a small paper plate in front of him. “Now, try the cheesecake we brought for Sho-chan. It’s super good. Nino had one of his assistants queuing up since morning.”

“You’d love that, Satoshi-kun. It’s really good,” Sho says.

Ohno tsks again. He’s about to scold Sho for being so informal, almost a lost cause now—but every time Ohno wants to snap at him, it seems that Sho knows and he’ll turn to Ohno or in Ohno’s mind, he’s trying to show the cast on his hand. The sight makes Ohno think twice before scolding him because he can’t really shout at Sho knowing that he’s in pain, right? The memory of that day when he’s holding Sho returns, and that’s why Sho has been getting away with informality these days.

They’re at work right now and their friends are around—but when the first spoonful of the cheesecake just melts in his mouth, everything else is momentarily forgotten and Ohno sighs in delight. “Damn good cake. I still want those sandwiches though.”

Ohno doesn’t have to look up to know the three of them are laughing at him—the cheesecake is all worth it—but when he does he meets Sho’s eyes and finds Sho smiling a bit too sweetly at him as if saying right, it’s that good right? The cheesecake, Ohno reminds himself, is worth all the fuss; he can just ignore Sho’s good mood today.

Aiba is opening another bento box and Ohno tries his best to ignore the laughter and cheers around him as Nino chuckles over Aiba and Sho’s praise after every other bite.

“No one told me you’re holding a party here.”

Ohno rolls his eyes and doesn’t bother holding back his loud sigh at the familiar voice.

Great.

The greatest.

Why the hell can’t anyone stay at their own offices during lunchtime like they are supposed to?

“Matsujun!” Aiba is merrily waving, while Sho—at least he’s still proper—quickly rises up from his seat and bows to Jun. “Matsumoto-san.”

“There’s no need to be so formal, Sho-san. I’m here to interrupt your lunch time after all,” Matsumoto says with a chuckle. “However I certainly didn’t expect to find everyone here. Hi, Nino.”

Nino is already scooting his chair aside and pulling one for Matsumoto. “Have a seat, Jun-kun. You look dapper today.”

Ohno doesn’t bother to roll his eyes and instead stares at half of the eaten cheesecake. Apparently this delicacy is his only ally here. He mutters darkly. “Yeah, please support them in turning my office into a pantry.”

“Oh, since Ohno-san insisted,” Matsumoto says with an amused voice. “What are you having? Oh, are those egg sandwiches?”

“No, they’re not,” Ohno says with a glare. And just in case he pulls his plate to his side and shields it from Jun’s sight; better be careful than sorry. “They’re mine,”

“The sandwiches are Oh-chan’s. You don’t want them,” Aiba says with a laugh. He slides the opened bento box toward Matsumoto. “Have some special onigiri instead.”

“Special, what’s special about it? Looks really good,” Matsumoto says as he takes a seat next to Nino after he takes off his suit jacket.

Their office shared table is definitely too small to accommodate everyone but here they are. He shifts a bit and meets Matsumoto’s knowing smile. With a pout, he asks. “What you’re looking at, Matsujun? And why are you here, really?”

“I’m glad his injury wasn’t anything serious, too.” Matsumoto says, and Ohno only grunts. Still, Matsumoto takes his time to eat his onigiri with a pair of chopsticks—and Ohno is tired of rolling his eyes so he let them be for now. When Ohno was about to ask him again, Matsumoto says with a sigh. “The preliminary trial date for the Sendagaya case is out.”

That’s his first murder case with Sho, Ohno sighs. With the perpetrator being the son of a respectable House of Councilors, he doesn’t even want to know the complications the DA office are currently going through. Catching the bad guys is one thing—one easy thing, but proving their crime in court and convicting them is another story. Ohno may grumble a lot about doing grueling field investigation but he doesn’t envy Matsumoto’s fancy office and his court work all the same. He decides to give Matsumoto some slacks, for now. “And?”

“Judge Okita will be presiding the session.”

Ohno snorts loudly into his now empty cheesecake plate. “Which is why you’re here.”

Matsumoto only hums in response, gracefully taking another bite—he really is going to eat the onigiri using chopsticks. “He has shown strong disapproval toward our offices especially since my last court session with him. I can only assume he’s going to go harder on me, and on us, this time.”

Going harder on them means Matsumoto, and in extension Ohno and everyone else coming into the stands, need to be extra careful. The old judge is infamous for his questionable impartiality and since they are dealing with a high profile case involving politicians Ohno truly doesn’t envy Matsumoto’s job right now.

At the thought of him dressing up for a court session and wasting his precious investigation time by cooped up in a stuffy courtroom, Ohno has to repress a shudder.

He doesn’t have time for that. No one does, except—keeping hold of his sandwich plate close, just in case, Ohno looks up and finds the sight of Sho trying to stuff more onigiri to his already full mouth, Aiba encouraging Sho to try for one more bite with a cheer and Nino laughing next to them. His gaze lowers to the cast around Sho’s hand and how awkward Sho is trying to keep his injured hand to his chest while leaning forward to make sure he can shove in another bite—okay, maybe there’s one who has time, who has all the time now that he’s off field investigation. 

Ohno turns to Matsumoto who apparently is staring at the same scene in front of him but with more apparent amusement. He says, “Sho-kun should do it then.”

Three pairs of eyes dart toward Ohno, and beside him Matsumoto asks, “Oh should he now?”

With Sho’s mouth full of onigiri, Ohno can’t really make out what Sho was trying to say next. It does suspiciously sound like “Do what?” and ended with something like “Sir.”

“You shouldn’t talk with your mouth full, Sho-kun,” Ohno says sweetly—small revenge does feel so sweet sometimes. For all the time Sho has been informal to him this afternoon, forgetting rank and all; his time has come. Ignoring Sho’s small flail in front of him, he turns to Matsumoto and gives a curt nod. “Sho-kun will do it.”

Aiba and Nino’s amused faces turn to see Sho’s reaction—which is still desperate grumble with his mouth full and a pair of pleading round eyes.

Matsumoto hums before he nods. “You know what, that’s actually a nice idea. You must have testified in public hearing before, ”

“I did back in Kanazawa but—“ Sho’s struggling to swallow the rest of the food in his mouth hastily, “It’s not a good idea. I have no knowledge of judges here. And Tokyo’s DAs are scary. Oh, of course I didn’t mean you, Matsumoto-san. I meant to say that in a more general image of the office if I may say and—” A pause and a nervous cough before Sho turns to Ohno again. “Ohno-san, Sir, you can’t be serious.”

Ohno can’t help feeling smug; huh, now you’re calling me Sir again, he rejoices in dark delight. “I’m always serious.”

Seeing that his pleading most definitely will not work against Ohno, Sho turns with a grimace to Matsumoto—Aiba and Nino following Sho’s gaze, with increased amusement; they are practically grinning.

“Your partner—“

“Senior partner,” Ohno corrects Matsumoto.

“My apology. Your _senior_ partner has given you a task, Sho-san. Our office appreciates your cooperation,” Matsumoto says with a quick bow to Ohno even if he doesn’t fool anyone with his bright grin. “We’ll hold several briefings with you beforehand. In fact, I suppose we can use your unfamiliarity with the Tokyo courthouse to our advantage.”

Sho remains silent, both trying to finish swallowing the food in his mouth and considering his alternative options. Matsumoto then adds, “Nino and Aiba-kun are going to be there too.”

“Oh.”

Aiba gives an affirmative nod. “We’ve worked the case together. Of course I also have to be there for the Morgue office.”

“And there’s free lunch,” Nino adds with a salute.

“Free for you since it’s my office expenses,” Matsumoto says, elbowing Nino . “I’ll make arrangements and let you know soon then, Sho-san.”

It seems that the matter is settled as Aiba now offers Matsumoto a new piece of onigiri while Nino is complaining that he has eaten too much rice for the day. But Ohno still has his eyes on Sho.

And Sho’s staring right back at him, in full pleading look, and Ohno has the pleasure of seeing his round eyes a bit glassy, his full mouth in a pout, and when he blinks at Ohno, his voice is soft. “What if I made mistake, or said the wrong thing?”

“Everyone makes mistakes, and if you said the wrong thing, Matsujun is going to be livid.” Ohno decides to give Sho some slacks; nothing good will ever come if any of them failed to represent their offices. “That’s why you’re going to practice your best.”

Sho still looks unsure and Ohno cannot take it anymore. “I’m also going to be there to make sure you don’t fumble around that old judge. If you still make stupid mistake, I’m going to be the first one to kick your butt.”

That pulls a small laugh from Sho. “Thank you.”

Ohno looks away and grumbles; now you’re trying to be nice to me again.

And Sho slides his sandwich plate toward Ohno with a tentative smile. “You can have mine if you want. Sir.”

There’s no point in saying no. The sandwich is good, and to have Sho willingly parting with his food is not something that happened everyday. Considering this as a win, he takes a large bite of the sandwich and nods, so now his mouth is full of delicious sandwich and he doesn’t have to thank Sho for his offer.

*

For the next week they settle further into their new routine.

Ohno will come to the office in the morning, finding Sho already hunched on his desk with reports from the day before and his case files. He will greet Ohno with his polite cute smile before he shares his findings for the cold case Ohno’s working in the field now.

And around an hour after, Ohno gets on with his out of office investigation and Sho returns to his desk.

On the first days, Ohno was content to have this arrangement; knowing Sho does not have to deal with punk ass on the street, and the most of injury risk he could’ve faced is getting paper cut at the office. But having a partner for almost a month has also given him some change of perspective into field investigation.

He realizes now that Sho has seamlessly taken upon himself to deal with investigation details and scheduling. Sho is also able to follow up his instructions and anticipate his requests after the rocky first week. He no longer has to deal with menial tasks that usually annoyed him to no end when he was with Sho.

Sho finally managed to convince him that the Kiriyamas were more than eager to help Ohno and gain more experience. Begrudgingly, Ohno accepted the offer. He thought having them around in field investigation would help make everything run smoothly. At the very least, he thought he’s going to have someone driving him around as he goes to his appointment.

However, none of them who went to the field with him show the same sharpness.

The first Kiriyama was okay, but at the end of the day he was too quiet—out of nervousness Ohno knows, but he also expected impression input rather than just plain reports. The second Kiriyama was a lost cause. He was too excited and chattered mindlessly throughout the day; Ohno had to scold him in front of the witness before they awkwardly went on with their day.

The third, Ohno knows it was not Kiriyama but he still referred to him as one regardless, tried his best but at the end of one long grueling day he was a bit teary and Ohno had had it. The fourth, the man who was with Sho and introduced himself—Ohno actually remembers him this time, the one who helped Sho in his first week—as Nakama once again was a good help but he’s nowhere near as good as Sho.

By the end of the week, he finally shakes off his pride and admits—to himself—that he missed Sho.

Sho drives them around but he’s not only driving. He asks Ohno about their route, informing him of the schedule, challenging him when Ohno was too careless with time.

Sho might be annoying at times but he also makes sure they both have lunch at proper time and that sometimes focusing on cases is good but they also need to take breaks—and despite Ohno’s reluctance and how at the beginning he scolds Sho for breaking his work pace, he now fully appreciates the routine.

Sho has been making everything easy even with Ohno’s grumpiness. Or he misses the way he can snap his fingers and then Sho just knows what to do. Without fail he would deal with all the tech things that Ohno hated. He’s not afraid to question Ohno—even if Ohno can be snappy about it when Sho did, but now that he tried working with the Kiriyamas, he found out he preferred Sho’s clarifying questions instead of receiving quick yes, Sir from the Kiriyamas but to have them still fumbling on their tasks.

That Friday night he returns to the office exhausted and annoyed at how all the interviews he conducted barely brought anything useful to the investigation. But Sho would be in there—a few nights before Ohno caught Sho’s having fun with his new virtual assistant, and at the very least he’d understand Ohno’s frustration with the cold case.

He’d probably not put any fights later, and be easily agreeing, if Sho suggested them to go together for ramen for late supper.

Few steps into their cubicle office, a smile forms on his face when he hears Sho’s voice followed by laughter. And it’s _that_ laugh, the one he doesn’t hear often.

Ohno paces quicker before the sight he found inside their cubicle brings him into halt.

Sho’s on his seat, his left fingers clicking some keys rhythmically, facing the computer screen for a video call.

With Matsumoto.

Some case documents also appear on the side of the screen, and since Ohno cannot see Sho’s expression he could only scowl at how wide Matsumoto’s smile is. Ohno almost forgot about the Sendagaya trial and how Sho has been practicing to testify—but it doesn’t mean that he should get chummy with Matsumoto.

Ohno steps further inside the cubicle and ends up standing on the edge of his own desk, his hand folded in front of him, still in his coat jacket, and waits for any of them to notice him.

“Oh, here we go.” Matsumoto grins, eyes meeting Ohno’s across the screen while waving in greeting.

Sho sounds confused. “Here what goes?”

“Good evening, Ohno-san,” Matsumoto greets him. He even does a small bow before settling back into his seat.

Matsumoto laughs as Sho makes a quick turn, greeting Ohno with a wide smile—like he’s happy Ohno’s back in the office, but is he really— “You’re back!”

A pause before Ohno tries to stare Matsumoto down. “Are you disturbing my partner’s work, Matsujun?”

Sho answers the question instead. “Sir. No, Sir, all my work is done. We just finished the last round practice and were chatting over this chocolate pie Matsumoto-san sent for us.”

“All the trial details are refined. He’s all ready for tomorrow’s trial but Sho-san here is nervous,” Matsumoto says on the screen.

“Refining details, huh,” Ohno says, making a point of staring at the coffee Matsumoto holds and the open half full box containing the pie in question on the desk beside the stacks of Sho’s files.

Matsumoto catches Ohno's impressive pout and asks further. “Is there any chance Sho-san can now be in charge of going through your old case files? I’d love to have a better version of that Kurosaki case file—that was a mess. I had to pull an all-nighter just to get everything in correct order.”

Ohno rolls his eyes. From the corner of his eyes, he can feel Sho’s starting at him. Matsumoto doesn’t have to be like that about the case file though; he could have reviewed it again and sent a better version. He grumpily takes off his coat and throws it to his desk, not caring if it’s landed badly and is now

“Fine. So, you want to get chummy with my partner. Let see if I ever call you again.”

“Oh, no!” Matsumoto gasps, his round eyes shone with mischief. “Who would you call when you’re asking favors from my office then?”

Point, but Ohno is beyond caring. “Toma, of course.”

“Yeah, that’d go well.” Matsumoto laughs out loud in amusement. They both know it’s an empty threat. Matsumoto can be annoying sometimes, but Ohno knows he gets things done quicker. Matsumoto finally takes pity on him. “Why don’t you try the pie, Ohno-san? It’s great and will put you in a better mood.”

He finally turns toward Sho and finds him sliding the pie box carefully to Ohno. “It’s really good, Sir.”

With a huff, Ohno takes the largest pie and goes to his desk to brood. He listens to Sho politely ending his call with Matsumoto half-eared, knowing they both will be fine for the trial tomorrow.

Afterward Sho lingers in his seat, throwing Ohno hopeful looks. Ohno knows he’s waiting for encouragement or a pep talk but he stays silent. Then, Sho steps closer to his desk and offers to do the daily reports and round up Ohno’s investigation notes.

Ohno dismisses the offer quickly. Sho’s the one who has a big day tomorrow and what’s the point of holding him back at the office. Ohno can deal with reports for one night. At the thought of him having late night ramen alone later, Ohno sends Sho home, ignoring his protest and emphasizing that Sho needs to rest so he could be on top form at the trial tomorrow morning.

*

Sho of course did very well, exceptional even, in the courtroom.

He might have said he’s nervous and looked worried all morning but once he’s on the stand, he answered Matsumoto’s questions thoroughly and did not waver even once when the defense team attorney seeks confirmation; Ohno even suspects one of the side judge has a crush on Sho and how eloquent he is in answering or explaining case details.

Ohno couldn’t be more proud, but it doesn’t mean he succumbed to the temptation of accepting lunch talk with Nino and Aiba.

He told them all that he had a lead to follow—Aiba only smiles, Nino tries to tease him, and Jun looks away to hide his chuckles, and Sho seems so sad, but he doesn’t let them deter him. He requested one of the Kiriyamas and briefed them quickly before asking for a pickup downtown.

One of the Kiriyamas arrived with a car—but at least Ohno knows this one is not a Kiriyama. Ohno likes this one—Non-chan, he has asked Ohno to address him after reintroducing himself as Kotaki. And everything went smooth until they arrive at the shop where one of the witnesses works. Kotaki was supposed to have read today’s brief and set up an appointment but they arrived at a shop only to find the shop is closed for the rest of the week.

Kotaki is constantly apologizing throughout their walk back to the car but Ohno has enough. His tone cold, he asks, “Weren’t you supposed to confirm the appointment?”

Ohno wanted to say harsher to fully scold Kotaki for his incompetence today but he doesn’t have time to teach rookies on the field. All he wants is to get this field work done and work the rest of the case with Sho. And it’s not even noon yet but today is already proving to be a not good day.

“Go back to the office,” Ohno ends up saying, his tone final.

“But, Sir—“

“I said go back to the station. Get in the car and drive away,” Ohno says, gesturing to the car. He would have done this by himself, but perhaps it’d be better that way. “You can even clock out if you want, I don’t care. Thank you for your work today.”

And he turns and leaves Kotaki before the man could say anything else. He vaguely remembers they passed a train station entrance on their way to the shop and starts walking toward the direction.

Ohno certainly doesn’t miss working the field alone.

Half an hour later, he manages to get hold of the witness, who is apparently at home on her day off. He sets an appointment at a nearby café in an hour and decides he can skip the train and walk a few blocks.

To complete his already sour mood, the witness was not being entirely cooperative. It is expected since he was investigating a cold case—memory fades over time and all—but Ohno has to wait extra patiently as he pushes the witness for information from years ago. At the end of the interview, he’s completely exhausted. He orders another cup of coffee after the witness left the café and sits a while longer.

He scrolls through his map app with a scowl. He’s on the opposite side of town—maybe letting Kotaki go wasn’t the best choice. His route options are limited; either he opts for the train and braves through the early afternoon commuting crowd or he could take a taxi and the fare would be above the official standard transpo reimburse—which he could already tell he won’t receive because Kotaki had logged the car under his name. And the finance section people would find out that he submitted a double expenses report and come for him to grill him about expenses Ohno won’t even remember; they are a scary bunch.

He steps out of the café, still undecided. He needs to go left to go through the alleys on his way to the nearest train station or to go right to the main street where it’d be easier for him to find a taxi.

And his phone goes off; It’s Sho.

He’s used to Sho’s video call by now but it’s not often Sho calls him in the middle of the work day. Unless it’s an emergency; Ohno immediately swipes his screen. “What?”

Sho’s wide smile greets him, and the dread that has started coming instantly disappears before it rises again tenfold because Sho’s in a car, driving. “What the hell are you doing?

“Go to the right, Sir. I’ll meet you at the bus stop.”

“ _What_?” Ohno asks again, louder this time but Sho has already disconnected the call.

He stares at his now blank phone screen—this has happened before. And what did Sho mean when he said Ohno should go to the right? Bus stop? With a deep frown, Ohno turns right and starts walking toward the main street.

He still doesn’t remember when he gave Sho his number but they had been exchanging text messages for a schedule and Sho often calls him for updates. But the most important thing: shouldn’t Sho be driving? Ohno quickly tries to remember about the health restriction but he’s unable to come up with any clause that said that driving was prohibited. He, and basically everyone, just came into a conclusion that Sho was not allowed to do so.

He reaches the sidewalk, and there’s a bus stop just a few paces away. A black sedan drives next him when he reaches it.

The window slowly rolls down—this has also happened before, Ohno is absolutely sure—and he can see Sho’s waving at him from the driver seat with his cast hand.

Ohno gets into the car and Sho quickly goes off the drop off zone, driving away from the sidewalk. The blast of the air conditioner feels heavenly but he’s beyond curious now. “Okay, so you do have your way but how the hell did you do this?”

“Did your interview go well, Sir?”

“It just went.” Ohno settles in, sighing in relief now that he’s back with Sho in their car, feeling the irritation he has since morning slowly seeping out of him. “What kind of way though? You haven’t answered my question here.”

Sho hums before he says, with his eyes straight up to the streets. “I kinda GPS-ed you.”

“You did what?”

“I installed a small tracker, Sir. It’s kind of technologically complicated. Sir.”

Sho talking with peasant language when he usually is all about technical jargons around Ohno while dealing with gadget is indeed suspicious. And he was using that annoying Sir tone that Ohno hates. Sho’s probably looking down on him knowing him not as savvy as Sho, but he doesn’t have to be like that about it. “Is that a dig at me? Did you hack into my phone or something?”

“No, Sir. I was just— answering your questions about GPS in the simplest term. And I am not hacking into anything. Now. I believe one good cop should at least know where their partner is when they work the field.”

There’s a hint of smile in Sho’s voice, but once again the air conditioner hits Ohno just right and he doesn’t need to go all across town in a crowded train or deal with double expenses. Sho has a point about knowing one’s partner's whereabouts so he decides to let it go. For now. “So why are you here? And are you breaking some law I don’t know about with you driving one handed?”

“Please let assure that I’m not breaking any law. The Chief has asked for you to be present for a briefing this afternoon. His secretary informed me when she hadn’t gotten your response after half an hour.”

Ohno picks up his phone again and goes through his notification; true, a few messages from the Chief office at the bottom are still unread.

Sho continues, “I tried to call Kotaki, but he said he didn’t know where you would be going and that he followed your order to return to the office. He came back to the office looking like he’d cried the whole drive back. He was the only one from the Req Division that hasn’t cried because of you—and now that he did, you have officially made everyone cry.”

“It must have been some tears of joy.” Ohno can’t help to smirk—that’s an achievement, he supposes. “You’re exaggerating.”

“A bit, but still,” Sho says. “They’re junior officers. There’s no need to go too hard on them.”

Ohno huffs; it’s always fun to go hard on people to see if they fit for the harsh job but, fine, he must admit that sometimes his way is stricter than others. “They are seriously lacking discipline though.”

“Which I’m sure you can teach, with an extra patience, of course.”

“Is he—?“ Ohno asks with a grumble. He didn’t want to ask but he also wanted to ask. Sho has a point though; he doesn’t like it when Sho has a point because it’s supposed to be him who has a point but there’s no point of arguing about this now. He’s tired and the meeting will probably drain what’s left of his energy for today.

“He’ll be okay. The Kiriyamas are taking care of him now,” Sho says. At least his tone is kind and Ohno settles at that. He looks outside and recognizes the street; they are not far from the office. 

“You haven’t had lunch, right? We can go to your ramen place after shift.” Sho turns to Ohno quickly, his gaze searching for a reaction. “Or if you still like spaghetti, I know a place.”

Why the hell do Sho still remember that he likes spaghetti? Ohno shakes off the thought and scolds instead. “If it’s not ramen, I’m not buying.”

“Of course, Sir.” Sho says with his laugh, his endearing laugh, and Ohno can’t help to smile at the sound. He finally gets to hear it again.

When Sho parks at the basement, Ohno glances at him, finding Sho’s smiling at him now. “Have a good meeting, Ohno-san. I’ll round up your field notes.”

Ohno nods with a hum. He already knows that the meeting with the chief will take the rest of his day, and he’d probably need to bring some case files home, but Sho will be there waiting. At least he has something to look forward to. “I’ll see you later then.”

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the intro and world building are pretty much done by now. From hereon, it’s ~finally~ time for some Yama fun and quality time. Thank you for still giving this a read <3! Next update might be slow since I’m still struggling with a vicious writing block but I’m trying my best. 
> 
> Next chapter: a new case and a lot of after shift and out of office ‘work’. :)
> 
> .


	6. Day 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features one of the scenes that I'd planned to write in the beginning. Finally!
> 
> Things are moving forward--here in the fic, in rl, and in everything--even if they're slow and unsteady. Thank you for still giving this a read <3!
> 
> .

Ohno leans further into his seat, and sulks.

It’s still so early in a bleak morning even if the rain has turned into a drizzle few minutes ago. The car is silent with Sho focusing on driving them to the crime scene while Ohno longingly still thinks about the warm sweet cinnamon bread he left on his desk in their haste.

At least Sho has the wit to remind him to bring his coffee. Still, he figures he can still complain. “Why are we being called on a theft case anyway?”

“Because the thief was found dead.” 

“So it’s a murder case?”

“It’s an intriguing case, Sir. There was grand theft and afterward there was murder. A suspicious death, they stated there in the reports, since they found the suspected thief left to die by the front display.”

“Front display?” 

“The first responders already worked their preliminary on scene and uploaded their findings. The assignment was labeled eyes only. Have you not read them?”

“No. I was enjoying my warm bread when you told me to hurry and leave immediately.” 

Sho glances at him with a frown. “Sir, you should at least read the summary. This is an extremely hot case,”

Ohno rolls his eyes. He’s fully aware of that but: “Warm bread.”

Sho only chuckles at the persistent answer; he hasn’t made any comment about Ohno’s reluctance of technology or digital reports since he’s cleared for field investigation, and Ohno notices.

At the next intersection, he pulls out his tablet from the bag he stashed under his seat—Ohno has stopped asking why he keeps doing that few weeks ago—and offers it to Ohno. “The museum has specifically requested for our discretion, and the Mayor has backed it.” 

“So much fuss, and for what? Well, I guess we’ll see.” Ohno accepts the tablet and then stares at it for a good minute. “Huh?”

Sho gives a short glance before he’s smiling. “Your thumb print would unlock it.”

“Really?” Frowning, Ohno puts his thumb over the scanner and not entirely surprised when the screen lock opens. He gives the tablet a closer look. “Is this mine?”

“No, Sir. It’s officially ours, but you weren’t keen on using it before. So I set things up for you.” 

Why does it work with his thumbprint then? Sho said it’s theirs so Sho should be able to use it if he needs to. And what happened when Sho wanted to access but Ohno is not around to unlock it with his thumbprint? Shouldn't a thumbprint work only with the owner of a gadget? 

“I have the password,” Sho says, sensing his confusion. 

“But I don’t.”

“And that’s why you have your thumbprint,” Sho says as if it explains everything.

It doesn’t explain anything, though. Ohno wants to ask further, but he stares at the tablet and finds—rather easily—the case files, already placed in the first slide screen. Also, it’s kind of cool; he can now say he has a tablet, a fancy one from the look of it. 

Ohno taps and scrolls further, skimming the prelim report, before finally finding the picture from the first responder. He realizes that now with Sho’s around, they are getting faster updates. It’s actually very convenient. And even with all the gory details in high definition. Ohno doesn’t even flinch. “Well, he’s being displayed for sure. It looks like a staged murder to me.” 

Sho only hums. They've passed the basement entrance, going straight to the front lobby. 

Ohno is impressed at the sight that welcomed them; patrol cars lined up, police officers scattered to secure the perimeter in neat human barricades. He spots no ambulance or morgue van so that means they’ve already finished the scene prelim and transported the body. “They’re closing down the museum. And all the barricade even after the scene prelim, is that really necessary?”

Sho manages to find a parking space behind one of the patrol cars by the far end of the lobby. “The Chief is waiting for us inside.”

Ohno is already doing a quick visual sweep of the museum lobby ground; this is the main entrance for general visitors. It’s been years since he comes here—he never does after he’s in the job—and a lot of things must have changed. “Vast grounds to cover, but as expected of a national museum. What’s got stolen? A painting or something?”

“They’re still doing an inventory check, but the preliminary reports said that all the Edo scrolls.”

“Huh? Why? It’s not that they can sell it in the market.”

“On the contrary, Sir, they would be able to secure large profit if they go to the black market. The Public Security people have already started to set trackers and form a special retrieval team on that. We’re here to investigate the death of the thief, Ohno-san.”

“Mhmm. That sounds so depressing.” 

They enter the large hall, passing two more guards, before they find Chief Higashiyama surrounded by his men and supervising a part of the crime scene.

“Even the Chief is here. This is huge.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you during the ride here. You weren’t listening, Sir.”

“I was. You said the thief was found dead. I can see him right now and I’m agreeing with you.”

Sho doesn’t bother to sigh softly now, but he follows Ohno to report to the Chief. 

Most of the people in the main area are not from Central—at one familiar face who sends him a nod from across the room, Ohno recognizes one of his old colleagues who is now assigned in the Public Security office.

They find the Chief then step further away to coordinate with the museum people so they wait by the sideline of the crime scene. Ohno takes the time to look around—this space in particular is really impressive, enclosed but at the same time inviting. The artworks arrangement has been disturbed by the crime scene team but he can still see the original structure. Not an ideal place to commit a crime—theft or even murder, too open, too prone to unsuspecting witness, too much unprecedented risk—but he’s long stopped believing in the good people, anything can happen given the opportunity; perhaps this thief/murderer really likes artwork.

Sho gives him a soft nudge, signaling that now the Chief is ready for them. And Ohno takes the first step leading them toward him, giving a stiff salute before bowing. 

“Ohno, Sakurai,” The Chief nods at them. “I appreciate your coming in such a short notice.”

In unison they reply. “Sir.” 

“I will clear any of your pending investigations, at least for the next few days. For now this case should be your top priority.” At another nod from them, the Chief continues. “I’ll have all the museum data pertaining to the act of theft to you. We have partial surveillance footage. All the additional findings from the Tech team will also be forwarded to you.”

Sho clears his throat. “With all due respect, Sir, I believe I’ll be faster than them.”

Ohno cannot hold back his smirk—Sho might be awkward in field work but he’s been impressing Ohno with all his tech prowess lately—feeling a burst of pride of having his partner stand up for himself. 

“I expect no less, Sakurai. Just use their data for comparison if it’s not up to your standard. You’ll have my clearance to act on your own findings.” The Chief shifts his attention to Ohno then. “I’ve specifically assigned you for this, Ohno. I need someone who doesn’t care about politics. The Public Security can talk all they want about the theft but I want the murder solved.”

Ohno manages to just nod firmly at the order—instead of groaning and rolling his eyes because great just great, this is a political theft after all. He can even sense Sho stand even straighter with curiosity. “Yes, Sir.”

“Sir,” Sho says before Ohno can say excuse them to go back to the field. “Permission to take a quick look of the crime scene now, Sir. I believe it would be best if we can get a sense of the museum since we’re here. In addition to the crime scene team reports, of course.”

“Granted.” There’s a small smile on Chief Higashiyama as he nods. “I’ll leave this to you. I expect a full report by the end of the day and daily updates until you catch any big break.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Ohno gives the Chief another salute and waits until he turns and leaves the main area before he turns to Sho with a scowl. “We’re here for the murder, Sho-kun, not for a museum stroll for you to ogle over artworks.”

But Sho has already had his phone on his hand and begun to take photos. “Half an hour max, Sir.” 

Ohno sighs and lets Sho be since it’s actually a good idea—he doesn’t need to tell Sho that though. He wanders around the main entrance and a man from the security office who’s been sent to find him by the Chief approaches him, very eager to help the investigation. By the end of the half hour, Ohno now has a clearer sense of the museum visitors’ flow and additional details of the parameter security.

He finds Sho near their car, fiddling with his tablet and in the middle of quickly typing something. 

“Let’s go, Sho-kun,” he says as he walks toward the car.

Just before they exit the museum ground Sho turns to ask. “Are we going somewhere, Sir?”

“No. Straight back to the office. I want to see that surveillance video with a large screen.”

Sho hums in confirmation, and Ohno finds himself asking. “Find anything useful from your tour?”

At the first intersection, they wait for the traffic light and Sho grins as he turns to Ohno. “I took so many photos.”

“And?”

“And I spoke to the Public Security representative. He was polite but not kind enough to share some of their finding details.”

“And?”

“I did quick research after, about the museum artworks and the stolen scrolls.”

Ohno stays silent. There’s a hint of excitement in Sho’s voice and he doesn’t have to prompt Sho to spill everything—he’s going to anyway.

“The public website of the museum stated that the content of the scrolls has been transcribed and reproduced many times. The faculty of Liberal Arts in Saitama University has an exact grade A copy and they have arranged to switch with the original at the museum twice a year for their anniversary events.”

Sho was silent long enough that Ohno asks again. “And?”

“It would have been easier to commit the theft when the exchange happened. Yet, whoever perpetrated this took the trouble of breaking into one of the most famous museums in Japan. Aside from being a rare collectors’ item, owning them or being involved in black market transactions doesn’t seem to be very appealing. With the news of theft-slash-murder hitting the mass media, it would be years until the thief is able to sell this. That is if they have an intention to sell them. However, even as collectors’ items, it would not be practical to display them for the public.”

“And?” Ohno has to ask now because he doesn’t actually get where Sho is going with this.

“Seeing how the victim, to use your word, displayed and how this theft is probably already in the top five of art theft of the century, I have to say this is way over the top. I mean, I have to say it was impressive they managed to steal from the museum but they didn’t actually have to do it here—if they want the scrolls, or they don’t have to kill the victim in such a way.”

Sho does have a point, his argument logical, so Ohno takes it into consideration. The drive continues and they both are silent with their own thoughts. It has been bothering Ohno too; how the victim was left to die—it’s almost like someone is trying to make a statement, a very bold statement.

They are entering the basement garage when Sho speaks again. “Do you think we can get more information from the Public Security teams? “

“They won’t have us,” Ohno says, deadpanned. “Their main focus is to retrieve the lost scrolls. We need to focus on our job to catch the murderer. I’m sure the team would want a long chat with that fellow afterwards, but we need to have him cold for charges first.”

“But perhaps they could—”

“No but. Nothing more, nothing less.” Ohno says, glancing at Sho who is now trying his best to not pout. “I know you’re probably savvy enough to track them down, but murder first, annoying politics shit after.”

“Have you suspected something else under all this murder theft?”

“Of course I have, I’m not a rookie. I know what’s going on. Which is why I want us to stay out of this. I’d be disappointed if you couldn’t pin it already. We just need to stay focused, Sho-kun.”

Sho still seems conflicted but he nods at Ohno’s order after he safely parks the car. “Yes, Sir.”

“And how many times do I need to tell you to stop calling me ‘Sir’ with that tone.”

Sho only lets out a small chuckle in response but Ohno can see him smiling afterward when he walks away from his car.

Ohno is reminded of the strange sense of fondness he feels every time he heard Sho laugh or simply caught other form of Sho’s amusement over his scolds these days; Ohno doesn’t want to stop reminding Sho of his ‘place’, yet he knows Sho knows he means well—and this is one example of them reaching another silent understanding, of perhaps—if Ohno wants to be hopeful—more of them getting to the point they were before in the past.

Deciding he should be satisfied with that thought for now, Ohno doesn’t roll his eyes this time. He still nudges Sho to walk faster to the elevator; they’ve a murder to solve. “Be ready to bring up your fancy charts and start the scene walk from the beginning after I finished with the surveillance.”

This time, Sho replies with a lighter and amused tone. “Yes, Sir.”

*

Two days have passed since the morning at the museum but they haven’t made any significant progress.

Ohno has let Sho to work with all digital traces from the museum—including the surveillance, the visitor data, and everything else Sho considers important to the investigation. Meanwhile, he has gone to the basement to find like-crimes archive, and came up with so little details about art theft in Tokyo in the last few decades. On his last report to the Chief Saturday evening, Ohno received an order for him and Sho to take Sunday off to return to the investigation Monday morning with fresh eyes.

He could tell that Sho was not happy with it—he wasn’t either, but they agreed on an early appointment for Monday morning and brought home case files that night. 

Still, Ohno can’t settle at home. After pouring through docs the night before and staring at them as he drank the day away, Ohno woke up cranky and was actually glad he had the day off.

By mid morning, he had migrated all his files from his kitchen counter and made his living room a complete mess—papers, photos, old folders on top of new ones, and more notes. He kind of misses Sho’s neat murder board at the office but he reminds himself that the old way has its own merit. 

Still.

Nothing seems to work and he regrets his decision to skip breakfast. He’s finally running out of phone battery and the thought of going to his bedroom to fetch the charger is not appealing at the moment; he throws his phone somewhere to the coffee table, content on seeing that it landed smoothly on top of a pile of papers. 

Sighing, staring into the ceiling, he finds dust spots near the corner and feels somehow nostalgic. He can only vaguely remember the last time he saw them, perhaps many months ago—he’s not been home lounging on his couch for a long while. All he did at home recently was crashing on the couch after he took the long shower and dragging himself awake in the morning for work. Some days were better than the others but somehow this has been the norm lately.

He sinks down further to his couch cushion and sighs—his feet slide further, since gravity makes his titled couch become the best flat surface to rest. Dozing off for an hour or two might do good to his mind—and maybe later he could get lunch and go back to staring at his files.

A long moment of silence before the chirps of the doorbell.

Ohno snaps awake immediately, looking around to find his phone. A delivery? Or perhaps someone from the landlord office is giving him a visit; it’s Sunday after all. He tiptoes to the door and finds whoever on the other side of the door is facing the other way. It’s a familiar figure somehow, so Ohno works the lock and opens the door slowly. 

“G’morning, Sir.”

In front of him is Sho. He got so used of seeing Sho in his fancy dress shirt and suits everyday, that now the sight of Sho in front of him with white sneakers, black jeans and a V-neck shirt under a soft cardigan—and he’s wearing some cool shades and his hair mussed from the morning wind—Ohno can only say: “Huh?”

Sho smiles—and Ohno somehow is happy to see his face—and lifts the take out bags he’s holding. “Lunch? And breakfast. Or perhaps, if you prefer, brunch?”

“Dammit, Sho-kun. Why don’t you call first and tell me you’re coming over.”

“I tried. Your phone is off.”

“It’s not—“ and then Ohno remembers it was an hour ago, when he gave up on the charger. “Dammit, I guess it was. Still, why are you here?

“Food, and updates. I suppose you’d still be on this even if you’re not at work.”

Ohno is still not convinced. “You know where I live? “

“Yes,” Sho says promptly.

And Ohno glares at him. Sho did mention—several times—that he ‘tracked’ Ohno in some of his nerd ways Ohno doesn’t even want to know; but knowing where Ohno lives is something else. “What else do you know?”

Sho stares at him with a weird look, like the answer should be obvious for the two of them, before answering. “Everything.”

Ohno snorts; he kind of expects that answer, because Sho can be very thorough. Another thing to think of another day, he decides. Since he’s here it’d be better to let him in and see what he could do to help Ohno work on the case files. For now.

Also, they’re still in the doorway. 

“Fine.” He pushes open his door for Sho. “At least you brought food.”

Leaving Sho at the entryway, Ohno walks back to his living room. A flash of thought tells him that he should at least make his living room presentable, but it’s just Sho who already knows almost everything. He turns and sees Sho still lingers by the edge of the room, waiting for Ohno to direct him where to go. He then points out to the kitchen direction—which thankfully is now clear of his files. 

Something smells really good out of the bags Sho’s putting in the counter. Ohno has to ask. “What did you bring?”

With a proud smile Sho takes out a clear plastic. “First, your favorite sweet cinnamon bread. It might not as warm as it was when I got them but—"

Ohno perks up at the word ‘cinnamon’ and snatches the pack immediately. “Give me that.”

Then Sho begins to unpack the rest. “For lunch, I got Umeda’s oxtail grilled bento,” Sho says, this time he sets two large bento takeaway boxes with extra care before looking up with a grin. “I’ve been wanting to try this since few months ago but they only sell limited bento on Sunday only so I queued this morning and managed to secure two. I thought you’d enjoy them as well, and—”

Sho still reaches out into his bags, but Ohno cuts him as he points to his fridge. “I only have cold beer.” 

“That’s good, because I don’t bring any,” Sho says without giving it thoughts—he continues to pull out more plastic containers; there’s packs of sliced pineapple, yoghurt, and some chocolate cookies.

“And I thought since you might also want some hot coffee with the bread, I have your usual here.” He sets two tall cups of go-to coffee, and it’s the one that he usually gets for Ohno in the morning. 

“Fine,” Ohno says once again, taking one of the tall cups for him. “I’ll have these so you can give me that important update of yours.” 

They move to the living room, and Ohno doesn’t miss Sho’s smile over the sight of messiness on the table. 

He goes to sit on the far side of the couch, cross legged balancing the cup of coffee—Sho always knows the best stuff—and taking bites of the bread. It’s the same taste—or he should say even better than the one he left that morning, which ended being thrown away, or that what that one Kitayama said. Ohno suspected they just stole the bread since he wasn’t in the office; he was only too busy to grill them and get into confession since he has a case to work on.

Next to him, Sho takes a seat before quickly bouncing back to his feet. “Oh.”

“What?”

“Is the couch tilted or something?” Sho’s eyeing the couch carefully. This time he tries to lower his trunk to the couch slower. “I think so but—” he turns to Ohno a bit confused to find the sight of Ohno grinning at him. He then perches at the end of the couch. “Satoshi-kun, why is your couch tilted?”

Ohno doesn’t even find it in him to chide Sho, being in too good of mood with his coffee and bread to do so. He says with a shrug, “It’s a perfect slant degree for sleeping.”

“Are you still sleeping on couches?” Sho asks. 

The _after all these years_ part is not spoken, but Ohno catches it anyway. He’s still not sure if he likes or hates it when Sho remembers things from their past—but for this one, he thinks he likes it. He decides to give Sho a break—they’re on their day off and he needs to at least thank Sho for the food. He ends up saying a simple, “Yeah.”

On the other side of the couch, Sho manages to settle his sandwiches—why the did he got a sandwich while Ohno only had cinnamon bread, Ohno plans to steal one later—and coffee cup around the remaining space of Ohno’s messy table. 

They set for eating their breakfast slowly, with Ohno perfectly content in zoning out with his coffee and Sho’s staring at the scattered case files trying to find some patterns

Sho finally asks. “What are you trying to see here?”

“Something I haven’t seen before,” Ohno sighs, setting his empty plate aside and turning to his messy case files once again.

“If you want variables and statistics, I can easily do it at our office.”

“Nah, tomorrow’s soon enough,” Ohno says, hunching over the table now. “I feel like we’re missing out some things but I don’t know what. Yet.”

Sho doesn’t say anything and rises up from his seat to go to the kitchen to get another plate—this time full of fruits—and offers Ohno to take a fork. Ohno takes it absently, but his mind has already returned to the source of jumbled thoughts he’s been having all morning. 

“This case is an insurance fraud.” 

Sho only hums, a confirmation sound he often makes when Ohno bounced off ideas with him and wanted Sho to listen. However it feels good to be able to state that out loud; they’ve been working carefully on not stating the obvious on their official reports but no one with a good eye on details will miss it.

“I kept circling on how Koda got involved in all this and ended up dead,” Ohno says. “Now that we got his background thoroughly checked, I don’t think Koda’s involvement was a pure coincidence. But the question is did they find him first out or did he seek them out?”

Sho takes his time trying to swallow the last piece of his sandwich before responding. “His movement in that security footage is definitely not one of an ordinary man.” 

“Exactly,” Ohno says with a nod. He remembers being awed to see how Koda managed to disarm security in less than two minutes before working his way effectively to get the scrolls on the footage. “He definitely knew his way around the museum, how the display space was arranged and some basic museum protocols. You confirmed Koda’s been involved in several old scrolls restoration projects in Saitama so he must have had a plan with the scrolls. But, someone he worked with ended up killing him, taking the scrolls with them and ‘framed’ him for the theft.”

Sho says: “Wouldn't it be, say neater, to murder him later somewhere when we cannot connect him to this burglary? That is if they want to completely erase the trace of connection.”

“You have a point. Some people don’t mind rolling out money for some attention,” Ohno is too hyped up to disagree. Sho has an interesting point after all. “Even if Koda was charged for the theft, the scrolls are still gone. And even if we find his murderer, it doesn’t mean that we’re getting the scrolls back.” 

“Rich people can be so creative when they need to find a way to get more money.”

Ohno chuckles at Sho’s offhand comment. Having someone to talk about the case really works wonder—they’ve been focusing on their own thread of investigation these past few days, and apart from their joint briefings there hasn’t been any time to discuss the case. He’s also reminded that Sho can give him some of the best response—or this time, a perfect opening for Ohno to tease him. “Says one of those rich people.”

Silence falls into Ohno’s living room.

Another beat of complete silence, before Sho lets out a loud annoyed sigh. “You— I cannot believe you brought _that_ up. You finally brought _that_ up. I can’t—You just—,” and when it seems like Sho’s giving up on trying to come up with a good come back, he carelessly drops the empty plate he’s still holding on top of the case files on the table, and outright whines. “Satoshi-kun!”

Ohno laughs. And laughs louder.

“That’s just mean.”

And now that Sho’s pouting sulkily, curled with his arms folder and slouched grumpily on to the couch next to him, Ohno just can’t stop laughing.

“That’s just fucking mean, even for a senpai by a year.”

The swear word coming out of Sho’s mouth feels so strange yet at the same time so nostalgic—profanities were something that Sho has overused back in the days. But what tops it is the tone, the tone that Sho has been using to put up with his grumpiness, the tone that has sneaked its endearing way into Ohno’s days.

They hit the ground running on the first day and since then things were moving so fast—Ohno apparently needed a day like today to finally set aside his work mode and just be with Sho without the need to keep the serious act.

He had shouted at Sho many times, scolded him for being too slow for his liking. He also had admired how Sho settled into his new job, felt grateful that now he had Sho as his partner. Sho had put up with his sharp glares and weird moods, truly knowing Ohno is much more than just grumpy detectives and showing respect throughout.

Still, it doesn’t mean that it becomes easier for Ohno to convey his feelings. It wasn’t easy back in their young days. It certainly is not easy now.

They settle into another silence, but this time Ohno grows worried. What if it was too much—or too soon—to tease Sho for the one thing in his life he hates the most? What if Sho finally had it and then went away with all his lunch boxes? What if Sho—

“For that low unwarranted jab,” Sho finally says. “I want ramen for lunch tomorrow.” A pause before with a hard elbow nudge, Sho adds, “Sir.”

Ohno lets out a relief breath he doesn’t know he’s holding while rubbing his painful side.

They’re okay. Sho isn’t mad—he probably was annoyed, but the fact that he could let it slide now—unlike years ago—says a lot of their connection now. Sho’s also saying that he knows it hasn’t been _just_ ramen for Ohno; and he wants that special ramen for Ohno to apologize. Ohno can do that, that's easy enough.

They’re okay. They’d have lunch and then probably forget to go back to the case files. They’d probably end up doing something else this afternoon, but Ohno thinks that he’d need a nap and Sho'd probably let him. They’d sit with their feet up on Ohno’s table, sipping cold beers, full from lunch and happy with the chocolate cookies, and—maybe, just maybe—Ohno’d fall asleep on Sho’s shoulder, his head slid down occasionally but Sho’d remain by his side, at least for the rest of today.

They'll return to their investigation Monday morning recharged with fresh eyes and better focus.

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: upping the 'heat' on Day 60.
> 
> .


	7. Day 60

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was supposed to be up last weekend but things rarely went as planned nowadays. Nevertheless, I’m enjoying visiting this universe again after a long while.
> 
> This chapter has nothing to do with police investigation, hahaha. Here's some tipsy fun and flashback, along with more building up. Three more chapters to go! 
> 
> .

Ohno drinks the sight in front of him.

Under the dim light of the bar corner, Sho is smiling wildly. Ohno partly regrets giving into Sho’s polite request of ‘some drinks to celebrate’. He should’ve known better and took his chance to go home straight after they finished one of the best ramen sets in Tokyo—Sho insisted on going there for his ‘treat’. They didn’t get to go for ramen lunch because of the case updates but it was apparent that Sho was not going to let him forget about the promise.

So here they are, their case wrapped up this morning, Ohno on his way to warm and pleasant drunkenness at the end of the day, and Sho completely drunk by now, his cheeks flushed, his full lips pouting cutely, his movement slow, his eyes following all Ohno’s movement in front of him.

Under the dim light of the bar corner, Ohno can’t help to squirm under such intense attention.

Sho takes a deep sigh and points a finger at him: “You know, I have always admired you.”

It must be the alcohol talking, Ohno knows, but he can’t help hold in the warmth on his cheeks from rising up. And after batting Sho’s pointing finger away from his face, he takes another small sip of his drink and tries to appear unaffected.

Sho only frowns. He waits for Ohno to say something else, but after a few minutes of silence, he finally gives up. Sliding hand further into the middle of the table, his other hand holding his face wobbly, his eyes dreamy, Sho continues: “You always aced those defence classes, and looked so graceful. I was so happy to find you as my new partner here in Tokyo. I didn’t even imagine being able to work with you.”

Ohno clears his throat and takes another sip of beer. There’s almost none left, and just when he tries to call the waiter, Sho hums again.

“Yet, you were always so mean to me. Always.”

It takes all his resolve to hold back his eye roll, but Ohno sighs and—maybe it’s a good time to stop this drunken confession, before it turns uncontrollable—says, “About that. I’ve been meaning to apolog—”

“But your being mean ended up as a good thing,” Sho keeps on talking with a fond chuckle, his eyes glazing a bit. “The pressure to prove myself to you forced me to always stay alert, vigilant maybe. I adapted to the new division faster.” Sho sighs and closes his eyes—now he has this dreamy smile on his face as he continues, “I like that you didn’t baby me. Tokyo is so vicious! But I can visit Mom more often now. I can have you near now— You were so mean after all, but you’re always there for me. And I like that—”

Ohno outright blushes. That’s enough. That’s definitely more than enough. This talk has already gone bordering uncontrollable and he needs to put a stop in this before it turns—Ohno needs to roll his eyes—completely uncontrollable. “I think we need to go and get you home now.”

And without warning Sho opens his eyes and stares at Ohno’s, in silent those large eyes held only Ohno’s in its focus, like nothing else around them matters.

Ohno can only blink and hold his breath. 

He is so used to having Sho frowning at him with confusion and impatience, or to glance and catch his warm stare when he understands Ohno is just being difficult for the sake of being difficult. He is so used to being able to glare at Sho with cold stares and stubborn pout. Now, Sho is staring at him with an intensity Ohno has never seen, his eyes bright, brow slightly furrowed, unblinking and focused solely on Ohno in front of him, his lips had a stubborn pout—such open emotion and heat. 

Ohno doesn’t dare to breathe.

He wants— He wants to reach out to touch Sho. He wants to throw propriety and climb the damn table, just so he can kiss those lips, just so he can press closer and hear Sho let out soft sounds, just so he can have Sho close his eyes again and spare him from this onslaught. 

“Ohno-san?”

“Yes?” Ohno startles out of his own uncontrollable thoughts. He blinks and refocuses to see Sho now tilting his head slightly to get his attention. Maybe Sho wants to go now, and Ohno’s agreeing with him for once. Maybe Sho needs to head to the bathroom before they go. Maybe Sho will start another argument about who’s paying for dinner. Maybe Sho wants anything else, anything besides being here. Maybe Sho will not realize that Ohno wants to kiss him right here right now; it’s really getting very hot on their table. 

But Sho then lets out an amused chuckle, a rarity, so carefree—reminding Ohno that one time in their Academy years when Sho was young and innocent, completely charming Ohno. “That came out wrong.”

What did? Ohno frowns. 

Sho seems to gain a bit more sense. At glance he doesn’t seem like he just drunk rambles his heart content out on their table. He looks glowing, flushed and sweaty, sincere and pretty. And, Ohno really wants to kiss him right now. 

So, Ohno casts his gaze down, reaches for his empty glass and frowns on it; he was going to order another drink. Then he makes the mistake of looking up and meeting Sho’s eyes again.

“That came out wrong. I was going to say—” Sho pauses again, his smile blooming beautifully. “—Satoshi-kun.”

Ohno’s grip around his empty glass tightens, but he cannot take his eyes off of Sho. And he finds his tipsy self replying: “Yes?”

“You always get mad whenever I call you Satoshi-kun. Always.” The mere pronunciation of his name out of Sho’s lips sends shivers of delight through Ohno. It has been so long. It has been years since someone calls his name with such endearing tone—Ohno doesn’t even remember when was the last time other people at work or an acquaintance called him with his given name.

With something that seems like a mumbled whisper, Sho closes his eyes and says with a deeper voice this time. “Yet I know that you like it when I call you Satoshi-kun.”

*

_“Satoshi-kun!”_

_Ohno let out a loud hiss but he didn’t let the call stop him. There he was again, his annoying kouhai, his annoying albeit cute—more annoying than cute now, Ohno grumbled as he walked faster._

_He was so close to reaching his dorm building, ready to go straight to the bathroom once he reached his room and have a long warm shower before trying to sleep early even if Ohno wasn’t entirely sure he could get a good night's sleep. He was actually quite nervous about the exams—his instructor was strict in warning Ohno that he was required to pass the written exam in order to make it to the end of semester. Their monthly physical and written exam was scheduled all day tomorrow and as much as Ohno dislikes cramming he had done so with Sho earlier much to his annoyance. So, what else did he want now?_

_Ohno had reached his floor when Sho finally caught up with him, just a few more steps to his door and then he could slam the door on Sho’s face. But sometimes Sho could be fast and then they were in front of Ohno’s door—Ohno had one hand opening his door and Sho excitedly slid into his view. Sho was still holding that large bag of his—Ohno noticed—his breath puffing from running in the cold, his cheeks flushed._

_“What now, Sho-kun?”_

_“Yamada just passed these to me,” Sho said, waving a bunch of papers rather violently. “What a jerk! He had this since this morning and he said he couldn’t find any of us when we’ve been in the library all day! Fuck him.”_

_Ohno didn’t care about what Yamada passed to Sho, but he knew whatever it was would not be worth the complication of shoving Sho out and slamming the door on his face. So, he stepped inside and began to take off his coat quietly. If Sho still wanted to talk it’d be better if they are inside, instead of being loud in the hallway._

_Ohno went straight to the kitchen. He’s famished—he grumbled again as he remembered that the reason he missed dinner at his usual take out place was because Sho has insisted to keep going. It was past closing time when they left the library. He went to his small fridge and took out the bread package he had left—he really needed to do groceries soon. After leaving a pan set to boil, he rummaged his drawers and smiled triumphantly when he found the instant cream soup packs. These would do._

_“And Yone didn’t even tell me a thing despite him having study sessions back in our room.” Sho’s voice returned to him and when Ohno turned he found Sho already perched on his counter with a scowl on his face. “And there’s no fucking way I could study this back in our room, they’re going to take all the space. And they’re always making so much noise.”_

_Sighing, Ohno took an extra soup pack; it looked like he was not going to get his peaceful night before the exam. At least he would have a better chance of peace—he has learned this throughout the year—with Sho when there was food involved._

_“May I stay here instead? We can read these notes together.”_

_Ohno huffed, setting the bread plastic harder next to the stove. He did not want to read more notes; he had enough with notes for today, the exam be damned. He just wanted a quiet night._

_“And,” this time Sho’s voice was softer, a tad shy. “May I borrow your shower. It had been a long day.”_

_At this, Ohno just growled as he rolled his eyes. True, it had been a long day. They went to the library straight from their morning workout and it had been hours since then._

_Making sure the pan was not ready yet, he then turned to leave the kitchen, heading to his bedroom closet. At least Sho could be good company at most times—he might have been an excited student most of the time but when he tried his best he would be so serious and absorbed in his textbooks._

_He returned to the kitchen and found Sho still standing at the exact same spot next to the counter, still clutching his large bag like a lost boy. But since now he had time to actually see him, the first time since they entered his dorm room, Ohno could clearly see Sho’s tired eyes and sagging shoulders. They really worked hard today._

_“Here.”_

_Sho turned and there was a light sparkle in his eyes when he saw Ohno holding out a pair of pants, old shirt, and a small towel. “Oh.”_

_“And don’t use all the hot water.”_

_Sho quickly put down his bag under the counter to accept Ohno’s offer with a wide smile, and nodded._

_Without anything else, Ohno walked back to the kitchen, trusting Sho to at least save some of the hot water for him. Now, he could set up dinner in peace. He cut the bread into small cubes before putting them in the toaster oven and as the water came to boil Ohno began to chop some leeks._

_He just dumped everything into the pan after, stirring gently, and hoped that everything worked out fine. With no energy left to consider about adding more ingredients—he didn’t have anything else in his fridge after all—he focused on seasoning the soup. More pepper, less salt, and two spoonfuls of milk. The low ding from the toaster oven came just in time as Ohno had finished tasting the soup._

_Dinner’s ready._

_And Sho stepped into the kitchen, his damp fringe covering most of his eyes and stopped across the counter. “It smells so good. I lo—, Sho managed to hold back his words, clearing his throat before he said again. “I was trying to say—” A pause, before a soft sigh. “You’re the nicest, Satoshi-kun..”_

_“I’m not nice,” Ohno said with a grumble. He went to the cupboard to get that one bowl he had. “I can be mean. I can be very mean.”_

_“You never bother to be nice, that’s for sure. But you’re not mean either. You’re very kind, the kindest, Satoshi-kun.”_

_Ohno tsked; he had no time for praise. And Sho sounded nearer than he expected—weren’t he supposed to be seated by the counter—but he tried to not give it any thoughts. He scooped half of the soup in the pan to the bowl, balancing it carefully when it almost filled it to the brim, before bringing it over to set on the counter. He finally met Sho’s eyes, those large beautiful eyes, and couldn’t hold back a small smile when he saw Sho try to fight a yawn; always trying so hard even it was evident that he was pushing himself too hard; always bothering him to no end._

_“Soup.” Ohno simply said. He quickly turned and busied himself with taking the toast out of the oven. “And how many times did I have to tell you? It’s Ohno-senpai.”_

_He expected Sho to laugh, somehow that’s how it always was, but this time when Ohno met Sho’s stare again, Sho shook his head firmly and said in a soft tone. “Maybe I’m not saying it right. You can be mean, that’s true. But it’s not— it’s never evil. You scold me every time we meet, but you don’t have ill intention to see me fail. You just want your time alone.”_

_And yet here you were, Ohno wanted to say. Instead, he slid down the plate and the steaming soup bowl toward Sho._

_“So, thank you,” Sho said, not looking down to the bowl immediately like Ohno predicted, but stayed locked with Ohno._

_Ohno only shook his head; Sho already said thank you for the clothes, Ohno didn’t need, or want, more than that._

_“I know you don’t want that, but I just need to— It’s not much. It’s just—” Whatever Sho wanted to say at that moment, Ohno would never know, but he could only freeze in his spot when Sho suddenly leaned forward. And then a shy touch felt warm on his arm, a surprised inhale, and a cold pucker of lips against his burning cheeks along with a stuttered whisper. “Thank you, Satoshi-kun.”_

_Ohno didn’t like how he felt flush rising up his cheeks, how his heart leaping frantically, still he stayed still even after Sho pulled back. It took him a full minute before he could say, “I don’t need that.”_

_Sho was avoiding his eyes now, but Ohno could see the red tips of his ears, his voice soft—sending unfamiliar and strange flutters in Ohno’s chest: “I know you don’t, but I really want to.”_

_“Spoon,” Ohno ended up saying, placing the spoon he had been gripping unconsciously in front of Sho. And without waiting for another response, he walked away and headed to the bathroom._

_Under a weak spray of cold water—because Ohno decided that he did not want hot water anymore—he tried to shake off everything. He should have kicked Sho from the first time Sho asked him to join his study group. He should have ignored all Sho’s message to study—Ohno didn’t even like studying. He should have not had his resolve wavered by those eyes, those large beautiful eyes. He should have set his foot and ignored his annoying kouhai, his annoying albeit cute kouhai. He should have slammed the door earlier and avoided all this._

_Still searching for an idea to kick Sho out now—maybe it’s better late than never—Ohno finished his shower. He shivered over the cold—great, another reason to blame Sho for making him need a cold shower just now. Fresh shirt and loose pants did wonder and with his stomach grumbling, reminding him how hungry he was, Ohno walked back to the kitchen._

_Only to stop short at the sight he found._

_He wasn’t even gone that long._

_It seemed like Sho had just dumped the whole content of his bag and now his small kitchen counter was cluttered with two text books, a few pens—why would Sho need more than two pens, really—and scattered papers. Yet on top of one of the textbooks, the soup bowl was already empty and now pillowed by his folded hand, his mouth opened slightly, still clutching one of his pens—seriously why did Sho always need so many pens—Sho is fast asleep._

_Ohno lets out a loud sigh, wanting to kick something._

_After a few minutes He tried to shake Sho awake but Sho only grunted and unmoved. So, Ohno hauled him up to his bed; he never uses his bed after all. Sho curled on his side immediately after Ohno fixed a blanket around him, and Ohno held back a curse—cute but annoying._

_He didn’t feel like holding his guard up as much at the moment so he gave in to the temptation. He leaned down, as quietly as he possibly could, and stroked Sho’s hair gently. What am I going to do with you, huh?_

_Leaving the door to his bedroom slightly opened, Ohno walked to the kitchen._

_He reheated the soup, and since Sho had used his bowl, he just dumped the rest of the toast cubes into the pan and ate them straight from the pan. Warmth filled him as he took his time savoring the soup; he felt considerably better now that he had food, he felt like he could even study some more._

_In front of him, his kitchen counter was a mess._

_Sho in a normal state would hate this sight—he witnessed Sho went into a rage when some of his friends did not pick up their messes after lunch hour. But look at all this mess right now, Ohno chuckled. He picked up Sho’s bowl and just set them in the sink—he’ll deal with things tomorrow and if Sho’s going to yell at him, Ohno was going to throw his dirty bowl to his face._

_After he cleaned up and turned off the kitchen lights, he tidied up Sho’s notes, knowing that Sho would wake up in the morning and instantly search for them. The paper on the top and its title stopped him—so this was what Sho was talking about—a new set practice sheet._

_He picked them up and brought them to the couch with him. He recognized some of the stuff he read yesterday and read on. It seems like the test would focus on some of the law articles they had to memorize—Ohno tried answering some of the questions and memorized some others. It seems complicated and he settled under his blanket, curled up, and tried to read on. When sleep finally took him, thoughts and notes jumbled in his mind. He almost had everything memorized, but he probably would forget almost everything in the morning._

_He settled to sleep on the couch, but he tried to read some of Sho’s notes—might as well see what Sho was panicking about. It won’t hurt. And since they were study notes, sleep was going to take him soon enough._

*

Ohno doesn’t know how long he can resist the temptation to kiss Sho right now, so he sets the glass he’s holding with a bit of force. It causes Sho to squeak in startle—good; they both need to snap out of this daze, even at the dire cost of losing the beautiful smile in Sho’s expression.

“That’s it. You’re going home.”

Sho blinks in confusion—with that cute face that he’s always making when he doesn’t know what to do around Ohno, before shaking his head and, thank god, pulls himself out of the daze. “Oh. Okay. It’s late, isn’t it?”

Ohno rolls his eyes again, with an odd satisfaction—because this is the Sho he knows, the Sho he can work with; he has returned, and Ohno doesn’t need to hold back. “Yeah.”

Sho’s unsteady when he gets out his seat—and for once, Ohno is glad that this one is on him, because he can leave Sho to get his bearings and heads to the counter to pay. When he turns, he sees Sho struggling with putting on his coat sleeves, and he sighs and returns to Sho’s side. 

“I can’t believe you,” Ohno says as he holds the collar of Sho coat for him and let Sho continue his struggle, but easier this time. 

“Sorry—“

“None of that,” Ohno says. He can’t resist flipping Sho’s collar up; it must be freezing outside and he doesn’t want Sho to miss work on Monday just because of a silly cold. “Let’s go.”

Sho follows Ohno closely—Ohno can feel Sho’s body heat on his back—and they exit the shop to find the quiet street and light rain. Sho stops dutifully a step before Ohno just in time so he doesn’t collide against Ohno.

“Great.” Ohno looks up to the sky with a sigh and considers his option. He asks Sho just that: “Can you order a taxi or should I flag one?” When he turns Sho only blinks at him with a small smile. Great, Ohno sighs again and pulls out his phone. “I’m ordering one for each of us.”

At least the taxi operator was kind and helpful—their taxis should be there in less than 10 minutes. Ohno is about to turn around to check up on Sho when he feels a warm weight on his shoulder; he tries not to freeze up and tell himself to calm down. 

Sho’s hand isclutching his shoulder. Ohno can feel him taking a step closer and his arm slowly folded and now Ohno can feel Sho’s elbow bone touching his back. The next thing he knows, he feels soft puffs of breath, and the tickling sensation of Sho’s hair against his cheek. 

Sho is using his shoulder to lean on and—Ohno can’t believe this—casually resting his head on top of his hand on Ohno’s shoulder.

Ohno is going to kick Sho ass later on Monday.

Sho’s warm. Sho’s breathing is easy and intoxicated. Sho’s using him as support. Ohno is definitely going to kick Sho’s butt on Monday.

But now. 

Ohno lets Sho have his shoulder. Kicking Sho’s butt now will only result in him having to take care of Sho more than he needs to. The ground is wet, the night is late, and their taxis are coming; so, Ohno lets Sho have his shoulder for now.

“We did okay, right?”

“We did okay.”

“I did okay, right?”

A pause, before Ohno realizes that this is what Sho’s wanting to ask. “You did more than okay. You did very well.”

Sho hums happily and then he just leans on to Ohno as they stand there, just two drunkards waiting for their respected taxis. Ohno is sure he’s not _that_ drunk, but Sho is probably intoxicated enough for the both of them, and he has no say in this. They stand there for a good five minutes, huddled close under the light rain, by the dark street side, until their respective taxis come and they both can go home.

*

_Ohno hummed at the pats on his hair. Those touches felt nice, his mind floated further in a sleepy muddle. And he would have been content if it wasn’t for the call of his name, “Satoshi-kun, wake up”, followed by a not so gentle shake on his shoulder. Last night slowly returned to mind, and Ohno tried to move away. “Fuck off, Sho-kun.”_

_“It’s 8 already,” Sho said._

_Ohno groaned loudly. That meant they still have less than an hour before they needed to be in class—at least he could use the half hour to have more sleep. He curled tighter under his blanket._

_At least now Sho had stopped shaking him, but he was still close by. “Why are you sleeping on the couch, by the way?”_

_Squinting his eyes open, he saw Sho sitting on the floor next to the couch—and he looked fresh, and ready for the day already; Ohno wanted to punch him or something. “I always sleep on a couch.”_

_“But you have a nice bed.”_

_Was Sho always this thick in the morning? Ohno didn’t remember that. He would have ended up in the couch regardless, but for now he reminded Sho that: “You were in my bed.”_

_“True.” Sho let out a shy chuckle, and Ohno closed his eyes again. Now, could he just leave Ohno alone, he could really use some extra snooze. In the next moment, he can hear Sho asked again. “Aren’t you going to wake up now?”_

_“No,” Ohno said curtly; wasn’t it obvious?_

_“But it’s exam day.” Sho tried to shake him again. “At least we can try some last minute cramming.”_

_“Fuck off,” Ohno said, a little louder this time, and turned his back on Sho to burrow further inside his warm blanket. If Sho tried anything else, he wouldn’t hesitate to kick him on the knee this time._

_Nothing for long seconds, and Ohno finally sighed onto his pillow. He knew his alarm would go off later but for now more sleep._

_He was already drifting back to sleep when the pats on his hair returned—they really felt nice—along with Sho’s soft voice. “Thank you for taking care of me last night.”_

_And after a series of noises coming from the direction of his kitchen—Sho’s grumbling as he tried to stuff all his textbooks and papers back to his bag—he heard his room door closing with a loud click._

_And then finally, blissful silence._

_Ohno sighed into his pillow again._

_However, he couldn’t get back to sleep, only tossing around a few times to no avail. Irritated, he finally gave up and woke up even if he still had another 30 minutes to spare before he needed to go. He walked to the kitchen to fetch some water and was pleased to see that Sho had taken care of the dishes from last night._

_He stretched his stiff joints as he waited for his cheese toast in the oven—last one slice he reminded himself, he really needed to go to the grocery. He found out that Sho had taken the new set practice sheet with him so he pulled up his own messy notes from his bag. He reviewed some of his reading materials and was pleased with himself when he realized he ended up memorizing almost everything perfectly, along with the new practice sheet he read last night._

_Glancing at the time, it was almost time to go, and Ohno picked up his jacket and took one last look at his dorm room._

_Everything is in place. Good._

_As he made his way to his class building, it began to drizzle. But even so, he didn’t let it dampen his mood; somehow it felt like today was going to be alright._

*

However, Ohno is in a foul mood by the following Monday morning. 

He had to nurse a hangover on Sunday morning—so much for being sure that he wasn’t drunk. And he’s still crabby come Monday morning.

Everyone is making way for him in the office building elevator, but he’s too annoyed by the crowd to even glare at anyone or bark at some innocent bystanders. For all he knows some of them might also have a hangover on Sunday morning—at least there should be solidarity in the misery.

Sho is already on his desk by the time Ohno arrives at their section, reading his newspaper with a serious expression. 

Apparently there’s no solidarity in the misery, Ohno growls grumpily. 

Sho looks dazzling for a Monday morning; he’s already out of his jacket which means he’s been at the office for some time. Ohno had to drag himself out of bed this morning, skipped breakfast, and battled his way into work in an extra crowded morning train.

He doesn’t even feel like doing anything else but sitting down motionlessly for a long moment—so Ohno skipped taking off his coat, since it’s still cold even inside—and plops himself down into his chair. The momentum shifts his desk violently and causes it to shake Sho’s desk, startling Sho out of his reading concentration. 

“Ohno-san,” Sho says. His smile is polite and tentative—and Ohno wonders what he remembers about Saturday night. “Good morning.”

“M’ning.” Ohno only sighs and closes his eyes. Maybe if he doesn’t bring it up, Sho will also not bring it up. That would save both of them from embarrassment and unnecessary awkwardness.

Still, Sho makes no sound for a while before Ohno hears him walking away. 

Good enough, Ohno thinks, now he can wallow in silence. 

It was a good silence for a while, with only faint distant sound of people arriving at the office, until he felt Sho’s presence next to him, along with a delicious waft of coffee. 

He opens his eyes bleary and sees a cup of steaming coffee in front of him and Sho standing next to him holding, wait is that, Ohno has to squint and fight his drowsiness, a plate of croissant. “And give me that.”

“I guess you missed breakfast.” Sho sets the plate in front of Ohno, still with his polite smile even though his voice sounds warmer now.

All he cares about is his first sips of coffee though, before he hums his dark delight in having Sho remember how he takes his coffee. He lets out a shameless groan when he finds the croissant is perfectly buttery and flaky on his first bite. 

“Sir, The Chief called in early this morning and we’re expected to be in his office for a nine a.m. briefing.”

“Fine.” Nothing else matters because the croissant is perfect and Ohno takes another sip of coffee before returning to his perfect croissant. Now, this is how Monday morning should be. 

Sho is still standing next to him. His voice is soft when he says: “I also want to say thank you for Saturday night, for taking care of me.” As always.

Ohno doesn’t look up from his coffee cup, busying himself, stuffing the rest of the croissant in one go.

He tells himself he doesn’t need to reply, he can’t even reply with his mouth full. It’s too early in the morning and he doesn’t need to look at Sho straight in the eyes now. He can always do that later, way later. He closes his eyes again, cradling his mug on his chest, and hums.

He hears Sho huffing amusedly next to him before walking away to return to his seat. 

Good, now he can nap for a few minutes—at least until Sho comes and gets him. Setting aside all the thoughts he doesn’t want to think now, Ohno makes sure he clutches his mug properly, and dozes a while. 

*

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next is Day 78 and some (undercover) fun! :D
> 
> .

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on [twitter](https://twitter.com/gomusshroom) if you're up for fic talk <3


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